THE BOTANY OF GOUGH ISLAND. 217 
in having the usually naked rachis more or less densely scaly 
throughout, and is hardly entitled to specific rank. It must be 
very plentiful further inland, as the beach is thickly strewn 
with waterworn stems evidently carried down by the stream 
from the interior and washed up again by the sea. 
Distribution. Tristan da Cunha; Tropical America to Tierra 
del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, South Africa, Mauritius, 
Reunion, and Madagascar. 
ASPLENIUM OBTUSATUM, Forst. f. Prod. p. 80; Hook. & Baker, 
Syn. Fil. p. 207. A. obliquum, Forst. f. l.c.; Carmich. 
in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. xii. (1818) p. 512. A. crassum, 
Thou. Esq. Fl. Trist. p. 33. 
Common in the glen. 
This species varies a great deal, and the Gough Island plants, 
while agreeing with some of Moseley’s plants from the Tristan 
da Cunha Islands, are considerably smaller than Carmichael’s 
specimens from the same place. 
Distribution. Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible and Nightingale 
Islands. Widely distributed elsewhere. 
Asplenium alvarezense, nat. size; with pinnule, sporangium, and 
scale from caudex, enlarged. 
ASPLENIUM ALVAREZENSE, Rud. Br., sp. nov. (See woodcut.) 
Herba parva; caudex brevis, paleis paucis sparsis; stipites 
