430 BOTANY OF THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. HERALD. 
In conformity with my views of tte affinities of Ferns, as founded on their different modes of verua- 
tiou, described at page 226 of this TVork, it becomes necessary to separate this and the following species 
from true DavaUia, the latter genus being now restricted to the species having a fleshy squamose rhizome, 
with articulate vernation, agreeing with the division Eremolrya. In Odontosoria the vernation is fascicu- 
late and adherent, consequently belongs to the division named Desmohya. In Odontosoria return the spo- 
rangiforous receptacle is often continued across the apex of 2-4 venules, consequently assuming the cha- 
racter otLindscea, with which the present genus is naturally allied. 
750. Odontosouta Chinensis, J. Sm.— Dava/Zm (§ Odontosoria) Chinensis, Presl, 1. c.—Davallia 
Chinensis, Sw., Hook. Sp. Fil. p. IS7 .—Trichomanes Chinensis, Linn. Hongkong.. 
§ BAVALLIM, J. Sm. 
757. Davallia divarkata, Blumc, En. Fil. Jav. p. 2S7.—D. polyantha, Hook. Sp. Fil. vol. i. 
p. 147. t. 59 A. Hongkong (llauce !) .— v. v, Hort. Kew. 
758. MicROLEPiA polypodioides, Presl, Pterid. p. 125. — Dicksonia polypodioides, Sm., Willd. 1. c. 
p. 4S7 .—Davallia polypodioides, Hook. Sp. Fil. vol. i. p. 181. Hongkong, and throughout the tro- 
pics generally (Iluncc ! Secmann !). 
The numerous and various climatic influences under which this species grows, appears to cause it to 
assume different phases, the extreme states having the appearance of being distinct species ; but the many 
intermediate states, and our want of knowledge of the nature of their rhizomes, renders it impossible to ar- 
rive at any other conclusion than that the great mass of examples in our herbariums belong to one species 
only . 
§ BICKSOmEj^, 
759. CiuoTiuM Barometz, J. Sm. Gen. Fil. \, c—C, fflaucescens, Kunze, in Schk. Fil. Suppl. 
p. 73. t. 31. — Hook. Sp. Fil. vol. i. p. 83. — Conf. Hasskarl's Retzia. Hongkong (Hance! See- 
mann !) ; Shanghai (Fortune). 
Although this Fern has been long known in a cultivated state in the Botanic Gardens of this country, 
yet it is only recently that herbarium specimens of it have been received from China, and which agree with 
the living plants in the Eoyal Gardens at Kew, the origin of which x^qtg sent from Canton by the late John 
Keoves, Esq., as the plant on which the story of the fabulous Barometz was founded. — (Conf. Pharmaceu- 
tical Journal, vol. xvi. p. 278.) 
Tribe Ctathe^:, Gaud., J. Sm. 
760. Alsopiiila (jigantea, Presl, Pterid. p. 61.— Hook, Sp. Fil. vol. i. p. 32. — Polypodium gi- 
ganteum, 'WaW.—Gymnosphora gigantea, J. Sm. Gen. Fil. p. 114. — Alsophila cernua, Hook. I.e. p. 
53. t. 20. -^Polypodium cernua, 'V\''all. 
In the present specimens the pinnules are more entire than in the Indian types, the venules also occa- 
sionally anastomose, nevertheless I cannot think it is a different species. 
Gleicheniace^, B. Br. 
761. Mertensia dichotoma, Willd. I.e. p. 70.— Sehk. Fil. t. 148.— J. Sm. Gen. Fil. 1. c— 
Gleichenia dichotoma, Hook. Sp. Fil. p. 12.— Polypodium dichotomum, Thunb. Fl. Jap. t. 37. Hong- 
kong (Hance 1 Seemann!). Very general throughout the tropics of the Old and New "World. 
