BY AV. WALTER WATTS. 403 



2. The pinnules, especially those that are undivided, have 

 a habit of incurving near the base, so as to produce a cup- 

 like formation, while, in the upper part, the edges are slightly 

 recurved. After the words, "pinnules tending to a similar 

 subdivision," there should be added, "incurved at the base, 

 producing a cup-like appearance, the edges slightly recurved 

 in the upper half." 



3. While, in the earlier specimens, the frond was mostly 

 upright, and only slightly scaly, except for the cluster of 

 scales at the base, in the new material it is bent back into a 

 procumbent position, is densely covered throughout with rich 

 brown scales, very long and hair-like, and is almost invari- 

 ably bent to right, or to left, often at as much as a right- 

 angle. The scales at the base of the rhachis are of a darker 

 brown than in the specimens first available, as in I'olystichuni 

 Moorei ; but those on the upper part of the rhachis are very 

 distinct from those of that species. The young fronds in my 

 bush-house show a mode of growth that is very distinct 

 from that of the young fronds of P. Moorei. Covered with 

 light-coloured scales, the new frond grows back from its base 

 procumbently, and its circinnate pinnse stand quite upright 

 before unrolling and assuming the horizontal position. In 

 all the fronds recently received, the pinnaj begin close to the 

 base of the rhachis (so unlike 1'. Moorei), and that charac- 

 teristic is most marked in the young fronds growing in my 

 bush-house. The description of the rhachis should therefore 

 read: — "Rhachis straw-coloured to brown, the base densely 

 matted with the richly coloured scales of the apex of the 

 rhizome, sometimes closely covered throughout with brown 

 hair-like scales, at other times almost naked above the base, 

 curved or flexuose." 



If the form with the very hairy rhachis is regarded as the type 

 of the species, then possibly the other form may be described 

 as "forma umbrosa." 



39 



