BOTANICAL INFORMATIOX. 17 



upon accompanying the first distribution of liis plants witli 

 printed tickets of names, &c., as far as the species can he 

 determined, instead of issuing them with numbered hibels 

 only as was at first intended. This arrangement, which 

 thousrii tedious from the novel or little known forms of veije- 

 tation under review, is however fast advancing to comple- 

 tion ; and it is confidently hoped, that in the month of Octo- 

 ber or November at furthest, the collections will reach the 

 hands of the respective subscribers, whose patience, it must 

 be confessed, has been long, though unavoidably) still we 

 trust, not disadvantageously, tried." 



Remarks on the Gejius SPHiEROSTEPHANOs among Ferns. 



Mr John S.mith writes to us in a letter dated Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew, August 26th, 18-iO. " It is now about six 

 years ago that I first became possessed of a Fern, which 

 at the time struck me as something curious. Of this, Mr 

 Bauer kindly made me a drawing, which satisfied n)e that 

 there was sufficient character to constitute a new Genus, and 

 which lias been given in your ' Genera Filicum,'' tab. xxiv, 

 under my name o( Sphcsrostephanos, which appellation I gave 

 to it on account of the appearance of the (then supposed) 

 remarkable elevated indusiform receptacle, the apex of which 

 was terminated with numerous sphserical glands. — When the 

 drawing was sent for publication, I had not at that time the 

 opportunity of comparing it with a structure noticed by 

 Mr Brown in his observations on Polypodium, in Horsfield's 

 ' Flora Jarff.' In that article there is mention made of a 

 form (of which it is said there is more than one species) 

 which Mr Brown proposes as a Genus, giving it the name of 

 Mesochltena. That gentleman has lately presented me with 

 a small specimen of it, which I find to be the same as my 

 Sph^rostephanos. 



" The character of Mesochliena is to have a short linear 

 sorus, situated in the middle of the vein, and furnished with 



Vol. III.— No, 17. D 



