AND ON DAVALLIA NODOSA. 269 



upper half towards the margin.* Similar venation however appears in 

 the genus Ceterach (where however the involucre is nearly obsolete), 

 and in Antigramma of Presl, and to a certain extent in Camptosorus 

 (Asplenium rhizophyllum, L.) ; and it may be a question, if the vena- 

 tion alone is taken into account as of generic importance, how far it 

 might not be combined with some of them. With many authors we 

 are aware that the quite entire frond would itself form a generic distinc- 

 tion. The sori are generally scattered and single in some of my speci- 

 mens ; in others in opposite pairs, opening towards each other as in 

 Scolopend? % iu7n . 



Tab. IX. Plants, nat. size. Fig. 1. Section of a sterile frond. 2. 

 Portion of a fertile frond, seen from beneath. 3. Capsule: — magnified. 



2. Davallia (§ Microlepia) nodosa. 



Prondibus amplis membranaceis 3-4-pinnatis glabris siccitate nigres- 

 centibus, pinnis inferioribus petiolatis plerumque oppositis horizon- 

 taliter patentibus omnibus ad basin magis minusve nodoso-dilatatis 

 squamaque majuscula membranacea bracteaeformi instructis, pinnulis 

 parvis ovalibus vel oblongis 3-5-lobatis vel pinnatifidis, lobis ob- 

 tusis unisoris, soro venulam terminante paulo intra marginem sito, 

 involucro parvulo semiorbiculari membranaceo convexo demum pa- 

 tente, stipite longissimo robusto ad basin valde squamoso nitidissimo. 



(Tab. X.) 

 Davallia? nodosa, Hook. Gen. et Sp. Til. i. p. 137. Davallia stipellata, 



Wall. Cat. n. 260. Aspidium nodosum, Bl. En. FU. Jav. p. 171. 



Aspidium foliolosum, Wall. Cat. n. 359 ("?") in part. Acrophorus 



nodosus, Presl, Tent. Pterid. p. 93. tab. 3. /. 2. Moore, bid. FU. 



p. 3. Acrophorus stipellatus, Moore, Gard. Chron. 1854, p. 135. 



Hab. Woods of the higher mountains of Java and the Moluccas, 

 Slime. Nepal, WalUch. Khasia and Bootan, Griffith [in Herb. ?w$tr.). 

 Khasia, 5500 feet of elevation, and Sikkim, 7-10,000 feet, Hooker and 

 Thomson. 



Descr. Entire specimens of this Fern are 4-6 or more feet long, 

 including the stipes, Frond 2-4 feet long, broad-ovate in circumscrip- 

 tion, 3-4 -pinnate (becoming brown-black in drying), in the larger spe- 

 cimens almost supradecompound, lower primary pinna very long, often 

 (the lowest pair especially) exactly opposite, brachiate, horizontally 

 spreading ; all the pinnae very patent, petiolate, more or less swollen at 



