3 
breaks out, and with a very rapid growth (six weeks or two 
months) it extends and reaches beyond one of the above-mentioned 
flaps: when that has attained its full size, another breaks out 
from the same point and covers the other flap, and so on. From 
the same point the fertile fronds, more or less petiolated, burst 
forth and project forward three to four feet and more in length, 
cut into a number of deep segments or lobes, and bearing near 
the base, between the segments, a great cordate or reniform spot 
of fructification, six to eight inches in diameter. There is some- 
thing peculiarly delicate in the texture and colour of the fronds, 
which are beautifully veined and so well adapted in form for an 
ornamental bracket, that artists have been occupied in making 
drawings of the plant at the Royal Gardens with such an object 
in view. 
Although the New Holland plant has generally borne the name 
of Platycerium or Acrostichum grande, yet there cannot, I think, 
exist a doubt of its being the same with the other supposed species 
adduced in the above synonymes, and I have consequently here, 
and in the ‘ Genera Filicum,’ retained the oldest name. Both the 
sterile and fertile fronds are very variable, so that no two are ex- 
actly alike ; especially variable is the base of the fertile frond, more 
or less cuneate where it unites with the petiole, sometimes quite 
abrupt, and variable in the absence or presence of sterile lobes to 
the margins of the reniform soriferous portion. Blume speaks of 
it as growing in Java always on a peculiar Palm. Dr. Wallich 
describes it as an epiphyte in Singapore. At Moreton Bay, Mr. 
Allan Cunningham observed it on various timber trees; and at 
Brisbane river in the forests of Araucaria Cunninghame. 
2. Piatycerium Stemmaria, Pal. de Beauv. 
Epiphytum, frondibus sterilibus sessilibus imbricatis distichis suborbi- 
culari-reniformibus membranaceis integerrimis rarissime lobatis pubescenti- 
bus demum glabris nitidis, fertilibus liberis 2 (rarius 3 vel 4) cuneato-ligu- 
latis nervosis basi in petiolum attenuatis bis dichotomis supra viridibus 
subtus albido-stellatim tomentosis, laciniis ultimis acuminatis divaricatis, 
macula fructificante (albido-stellatim tomentosa) bifida in axillam furcature. 
Acrostichum Stemmaria, Pal. Beauv. Fl. D’ Ow. et de Benin, p.2. t. 2. 
Has. Tropical Western Africa, on trees. Introduced from Sierra Leone 
about 1839, and presented by Mr. Loddiges to Kew. 
This has, by many botanists, been considered identical with the 
Platycerium aleicorne ; but no one can see them growing without 
feeling satisfied of their distinctive characters. It is cultivated with 
us on a piece of board in a moist stove, but is far more difficult 
to preserve than either of the other species. 
