AND ON DAVALLIA NODOSA. 271 



mens from the author (Dr. Blume) and from Dr. Miquel, of the Aspi- 

 dium nodosum, BL, and still finer from the late Mr. Griffith, from the 

 Indian Company, and from Drs. Hooker and Thomson, with perfect 

 fructifications, gathered in Khasia and Himalaya, have led me to a full 

 investigation of the two Ferns, and to the conclusion that, however 

 alike in general aspect the two plants may be, they are neither specifically 

 nor generically the same. 



Blume in 1827, Enum. Fil. Jav. p. 171, established his Aspidium 

 nodosum upon a Fern found in Java, and next to it, same page, stands 

 "Aspidium subdigitatum, n. sp.," with the remark, "Priori {Aspid. no- 

 dos.) simillimum, sed distinctum pinnis subalternis haud oppositis, ra- 

 chi ad insertionem pinnarum haud nodosa, pinnulisque secundariis sub- 

 digitato-pinnatifidis." 



The first of these two Ferns is taken up by Presl in his ' Tent. Pteri- 

 dographiae,' and a new genus constituted of it ; Acrophorus, "Sori apici 

 venularum superiorum insidentes, globosi, parvi. Indusium suborbicula- 

 tum puncto laterali inferiori affixum." And we have the further character: 

 " Indusium primo sorum laxe obtegens, demum reflexum et corrugatum, 

 ita ut capsulis absconditur. 5 ' In this state it may well resemble a Poly- 

 podium. To very few authors does this species seem to be known. Guided 

 by Presl's figure, probably, Link united Acrophorus with Cystopteris. Fee 

 much more recently places Acrophorus among his "Genres et Sous- 

 Genres non adoptes ou omis dans les synonymes," with the observa- 

 tion, "Nous n*avons jamais vu cette plante." In my c Genera et Sp. 

 Filicum* I referred Blume's plant, with doubt indeed, to Davallia. 

 Moore, first in the 'Gardeners' Chron./ 1854, p. 135, and since in his 

 c Index Filicum, 5 p. xci. and p. 1, not only preserves the genus Acro- 

 phorus, but modifies it, in order that it may include " Leucostegia, Pr., 

 Odontoloma, J. Sm., ? Monachosorurn, Kze., Davallia sp., Saccolomatis 

 sp., Stenolomatis sp., Cystopteridis sp., Lindscete sp., Microlepim sp., 

 Humata sp., Dicksonice sp. ;" so that it numbers twenty-one species, 

 the majority indeed included under Davallia in our ■ Gen. et Sp. Fil.' 

 Such a union of recently-found genera is indeed more consonant to 

 our views than to those of Pteridologists of the present day, or than 

 is consistent with the other very numerous genera enumerated in the 

 same ■ Index Filicum/ The author has assuredly rightly referred the 

 Davallia stipellata to the original species Acrophorus nodosus .* not so 

 however with regard to the Monachosorurn davallioides, Kze., Fil. Suppl. 



