HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



133 



of the flesh-eating tribe. They consist of primary, 

 secondary, and third rows. There are nine teeth 

 in the primary row, seven in the secondary, and 

 four in the last set, the whole forming an arrange- 

 ment which can be well expressed in the following 

 formula, viz. I, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1. There is 

 scarcely any difference in the width of the main 

 teeth from base to apex, but they are decidedly 

 more deeply cleft than in Mitsca vomitoria. They 

 are tolerably strong, breaking with a clean fracture if 

 unduly pressed, and in colour they are a deep amber. 



B. oriental e, Linn., is easily recognised if the sori 

 are developed. 



Down the centre of each of the long straggling 

 pinna? (the frond is simply pinnate) a row of sori on 

 each side of the midrib seems sometimes to compress 

 the fertile leaf; the indusium or covering runs 

 parallel, and outside between the sori and margin of 

 the leaf. The lower pinnse are smaller than the 

 upper, reduced from six or eight inches, to an inch or 

 half-an-inch in length. 



Blechnum is mentioned by Dioscorides, a Greek 



A 



V 



Fig. 91. — Linds&tz 

 flabellulata, Dry. 



Fig. 92. — Linds&a heterophylla, 

 Dry. 



Fig. 93. — Adiantam caudatum, and Adiantum flabellulatum, 

 Hk., Linn. 



SOME FERNS OF HONG-KONG. 

 By Mrs. E. L. O'Malley. 



[Continued from p. 106.] 



Gen. IV. Blechnum, Linn. 

 {Hard-fern.) 



ONCE more we meet with a genus of world-wide 

 distribution. 

 The species so common in Hong-Kong and on the 

 Peak is B. orientate, or hard fern' of the east. 

 Travelling round the world we shall find almost the 

 same in the western tropics. There the species is 

 called B. occidental, or hard fern of the west, and, 

 perhaps, revisiting our native land, one of the 

 commonest objects in English heaths and in Scotch 

 glens is B. boreale, a hard fern of the north. 



botanist. The name Blechnon seems to mean simply 

 " a fern." The English name speaks truly of the 

 nature of the plant. It is longer lived, and more 

 able to resist an adverse soil and climate than is the 

 case with ferns in general. 



Gen. V. Linds/ea, Dry. 



The formation of the indusium in Lindsaea is 

 peculiar, and must not be confounded with Pteris. 

 It is, in fact, exactly the reverse. It is attached to 

 the leaf-edge, not at, but below the margin, and runs 

 the length of the frond or pinnule. When the seed 

 is mature the indusium is detached, not below, but at 

 the margin, and the sori appear plainly. 



Three species are common. None are large plants. 



Lindscea ensifolia, S\v., is the largest and rarest. 



