Mli. J. a. BAKEB ON A COLLECTION Of EEUNS. 41 1 



On :i Collection of Ferns made by Mr. William Pool in the 



interior of Madagascar. By J. G. Baker, F.L.S. 



* 



[Eead June 1, 1876.] 



Mr. William Pool, a gentleman largely engaged in building- 

 operations in Antananarivo, has this spring returned temporarily 

 to England, and brought with him and presented to the Kew 

 Herbarium the very interesting collection of Ferns which is 

 the subject of the present paper. As we know so little upon 

 the botany of the interior of Madagascar, I give a complete 

 catalogue of the species which he has gathered, describing only 

 the novelties. The numbers prefixed to these latter indicate the 

 place in which they fall in the sequence of species followed in our 

 4 Synopsis FiJicum/ 



34*. Cyathea appenpiculata, Baker, n. sp. Fronds ample, bipin- 

 nate. Fertile pinnae lanceolate, 6-9 in. long, 18-21 lines broad; their 

 pinnules subsessile, only a few of the uppermost adnate, the others 

 free, but not petioled, lanceolate, faintly crenate, J in. broad, obtuse, 

 auricled on the upper side at the base. Rachises pale brown or cas- 

 tancous, entirely naked on the lower side, pilose on the upper. Veins 

 distinct, close, those of the lower part of the pinnules 2-3-furcate, 

 those of the auricle pinnate. Sori in rows close to the midrib of the 

 lower part of the pinnae. Involucre large, glabrous, breaking up irre- 

 gularly. It bears also from the crown of the caudex decompound 

 oblong-oblanceolate dimorphous pinnae, like those of Hemitelia capen- 

 sis, with linear- subulate divaricating segments ^-j in. long. 



It resembles closely in cutting, texture, and veining some of the 

 forme of C. canaliculata, which is a Madagascar species, but differs 

 by its free pinnules, auricled on the upper ( side at the base, and 

 by having the remarkably fine dimorphic pinnae just described, 

 which occur also in C. decrescens, a tripinnate species gathered in 

 Madagascar by Boivin. 



34*. C. quadrata, Baker, n. sp. Fronds ample, bipinnate. Fertile 

 pinnae lanceolate, 9-12 in. long, 18-21 lines broad. Pinnules free, 

 except the uppermost, just as in C. appendiculata, ligulate, obtuse, } 

 in. broad, not auricled at the base, sessile, or the lowest shortly pe- 

 tioled, distinctly crenated, with square lobes. Texture subcoriaceous. 

 Both surfaces green, the upper one glabrous, the lower slightly pilose 

 and the edge ciliated. Rachises dull brown, those of the pinnae sub- 

 glabrous on the lower side, densely tomentose on the upper. Veins 

 distinct, 15 to 18 on each side in the fully-developed pinnules, the 



M*». JOUMr.— BOTANV, VOL. XV. 2 Q 



