J. SMITH ON THE GENERA OF FERNS. 155 



gonium may be viewed as analogous in habit and venation to 

 Goniopteris, Meniscium, and Cyrptophlehium, and the circum- 

 stance of the sporangia in some of the species being evident- 

 ly produced on the venules, and only sparingly between them, 

 tends still more to prove the affinity of this genus with Menis- 

 cium. 



47. Photinopteris, J. Sm. 



Veins costaeform, combined by transverse venules, form- 

 ing quadrangular areoles, and including compound anasto- 

 mosing, and variously directed free veinlets, which have cla- 

 vate apices. 



Fronds coriaceous, smooth^ pinnate, from two to three feet 

 high, the upper part contracted and fertile. Pinnae articidated 

 with the rachis. Petiole short, dilated, its base vertically ob- 

 long, and furnished with an obtuse lobide on the loiver side. 

 Sterile pinnse elliptical, lanceolate, and falcately attenuated at 

 the apex, the base slightly oblique, from six to eight inches long 

 by three inches wide, margin entire, thickened and slightly re- 

 volute. Fertile pinnae linear, from eight inches to one foot in 

 length, the underside wholly sporangiferous. 



Species. 1. P. simplex, J. Sm. 2. P. Horsfieldii, J. Sm. 

 (Acrostichum ? rigidum, Wall.) 



Illust. Hook. Gen. Fil, t. ined. 



Obs. My attention was first called to this remarkable fern 

 by the examination of a specimen in the herbarium of Dr 

 Horsfield at the East India House, which was collected by 

 that gentleman in Java, and it appears by a specimen in the 

 Wallichian Herbarium, to have been also found near Singa- 

 pore by Dr Wallich, in 1822 ; fine specimens from the island 

 of Luzon, have now enabled me to form the above character, 

 which must be confessed is scarcely distinct from the follow- 

 ing genus, but the peculiar habit o^ Photinopteris totally pro- 

 hibits its being associated with Gymnopteris, from which it is 

 readily distinguished by the very obvious character of the 

 articulation of the pinnae with the rachis ; being analogous 

 in that respect, as also in venation and aspect, to that section 

 of Drynaria, of which D. quercifolia, and D. diversifolia are 



