J. SMITH ON THE GENERA OF FERNS. 53 



and, being sporangiferous,give to it tlie appearance of an.icros- 

 tichurii, as exhibited by the figures in Jiuuph. Amb. vol. G. t, 

 35./. 1, and Blurae's Fl. Java. vol. 3. t. 1. But, besides 

 these forms, there are specimens of evidently the same Fern, 

 in which the fertile fronds are in the usual state, or but 

 slightly contracted, a character common to all fertile fronds 

 of Ferns, which have sterile and fertile ones distinct. In 

 these fronds the sori are distinct as in Pohjpodiuin, but dif- 

 fering from that genus by its anastomosing venules, which, in 

 that respect, as also in the character of the lower sori, it has 

 great affinity with Memscium and Goniopteris, and appears 

 to form a transition between these genera and those species of 

 AcrostichecB which I have in the following pages characteriz- 

 ed under Cyrtogonhua. 



13, Stegnogramma. Blmne. Presl. 



Veins costseforra, pinnate, each opposite pair of venules 

 angularly anastomosing, and producing from their junction an 

 excurrent usually sterile veinlet, which anastomoses in the 

 junction of the next superior pair. Sporangia medial. Sori 



oblong or linear, simple or continuous. — Rhizoma ? 



Fronds /roni \ to 2 feet in length, pinnate; pinnoe crenate. 

 Sporangia echinate, occupying the middle portion of the 

 venules, and sometimes continued across their junction, and 

 occupying the excurrent veinlet. 



Species. 1. S. aspidioides. Blitme. — lUust. Blume, Fl. 

 Jav. t. 44. 



Ohs. This genus is distinguished from the preceding by 

 the venules being anastomosed, and from the following, by 

 the linear straight sori, and the excurrent veinlet being also 

 anastomosed. 



14. Meniscium. Schreh. 



Veins costseform, pinnate, each opposite pair of venules 

 angularly or arcuately anastomosing, and producing from their 

 junction an excurrent sterile free veinlet. Sporangia medial — 

 terminal, continued across the junction of the venules, forming 

 linear, arcuate somewhat transverse sori. — Rhizoma creeping. 



