270 ON ASPLENIUM NIGRIPES, 



the base (probably more distinctly so in the living plant) ; and at this 

 base is attached a rather large, membranaceous, ovate or subrotund, 

 stipulary scale, which suggested to Dr. Wallich the appropriate name 

 of slip ellat a to the species. Ultimate pinnules ovate and 3-5-lobed, or 

 oblong and deeply pinnatifid, glabrous, but when young very minutely 

 furfuraceous, cuneate at the base and decurrent, so as to form a narrow 

 wing to the ultimate rachises ; a slender zigzag sparsely pilose vein 

 passes through the centre of this pinnule, sending out single vein- 

 lets towards each lobe, which terminate below the apex, and which 

 bear the sorus at their points. Sorus rather small, globose. Involucre 

 small, membranaceous, reniform, or nearly so when it covers the young 

 sorus, attached by a broad base ; afterwards it forms a half cup, cover- 

 ing only the lower portion or half of the sorus, in age becoming lax, 

 very convex, and more or less patent or even reflexed, and in that state 

 it may easily be mistaken for the involucre of a Cystopteris ; almost 

 justifying Link in uniting it to that genus. Caudex unknown to me. 

 Stipes very long, often 2-3 feet, stout, thickening considerably towards 

 the base, which is clothed with very large, ovate or oblong, brown, 

 membranaceous scales, attached by a very broad base, waved, entire, 

 becoming gradually fewer upwards, but a similar though broader and 

 shorter scale is continued at the setting-on of the various pinnae, and 

 not unfrequently, in the younger specimens, seen at the base of the 

 pinnules also. The colour of the stipes, as well as of all the numerous 

 slender, strict, or slightly curved rachises, is a pale but bright brown, 

 singularly smooth and polished. 



I owe some apology to the public for the statement made under Da- 

 vallia ? nodosa (Gen. et Sp. Pil. i. p. 157) : "Of this plant I regret to 

 say I know nothing, except from the remarks of Blume and Presl, and 

 the figure of the latter author." It was my own fault that I was so 

 ignorant ; and it is as well at once to confess that, like its original dis- 

 coverer (though not describer), Dr. Wallich, I had carelessly confounded 

 it with Diacalpe aspidioides, Bl. (and Hook. Gen. et Sp. Til. i. p. 59, 

 Aspidium foliolosum, Wall. Cat.). A note accompanying one of the 

 specimens of this plant, from Dr. Wallich, should have taught me more 

 caution :— " Sent home to the India House in 1823, as Aspidium ? fo- 

 liolosum, Wall. Pray compare it with the other plant, and retain or 

 reject the species accordingly." This remark, I need not say, indicates 

 a close general resemblance to the Diacalpe : and fine authentic speci- 



