FILICES. 69 



P. si:MrrrxN.\TA, L. 



A striking foni of moderate size, 2 or 3 feet high, to Lc known hj the lower 

 side of the ])iiiiioB only, and not the upper, being cut into narrow linear pinnules. 

 I found it but once. On the proper right bank of the Tenasserim lliver, a few miles 

 from Mcrgui, arc some pagodas whence a pretty view is obtained. I forget the name 

 of the spot, but it was in walking to it that I gathered P. semipiniiata. 



P. LUDKNS, Tr'allich. 



Remarkable for having fronds of two distinct forms on the same root-stock. 

 The barren frond has a black, polished stipes 4 or o inches liigh, and is " hastately 

 6-lobed," a jjroniinent vein running into each lobe, cordate below; in fact, it may be 

 described as betwcn^n heart-shaped and arrow-headed with blunt lobes. It is of a 

 coriaceous or leathery texture, green above, brown underneath. The fertile fronds 

 are on much longer stipites, about a foot long, and are deeply pinnatitid, being 

 divided into 3 primary lobes, these being again divided, the terminal one into three, 

 and the lateral ones into two narrow linear pointed segments. The frondose portion 

 is about as broad as long, varying fi'om 4 to 6 inches. The rhizome or root-stock is 

 creeping, about as thick as a crow-quill, hard and wiry. — Limestone rocks, Maulmain. 



P. PEDATA, Z. 



This in general character is like the last, also in texture. Pvhizome similar. 

 Stipites one foot or more, smooth, brown ; the frond at the end 4 to 6 inches each 

 ■way, tripartitely divided ])rimarily ; the lateial divisions lobcd on the lower side of 

 the prominent rib, undivided on the upper ; the terminal division lobcd on both sides, 

 with a larger lobe at the end, which is drawn out into a tine point. All the lobes, or 

 pinna;, as they may also be called, are much broader than those of P. hidcns, and 

 the fi'onds are all of one and the same form. Also on Limestone rocks, Maulmain. 



CeUATOPTEEIS ' THAlICTROrDES. 



An aquatic fern, from one to Lwo feet high, generally wliolly submerged in 

 quiet deep waters. Root tufted, fibrous. Fronds rather succulent, and pellucid in 

 texture. Sterile and feitile fronds ditfcrcnt, though sometimes a frond is partly 

 fertile, partly sterile. They are both much divided, being bitripinnate ; but, in the 

 steiile, the divisions arc broad and expanded, and, in the fertile, naiTow, linear, 

 being contracted by the production of the fructitication, which is sparse, scattered 

 thinly under the continuously retlexcd margin of the segments. Although generally 

 founcl in water, this singular fern does not disdain other habitats. For several years 

 it sprang up in the rainy season on the gravel path in my garden in Maulmain. 

 How it came there I have no idea (as it was, in fact, my first acquaintance with the 

 fern), except, of course, that the spores must have floated thither on the air, but it 

 must have been from some long distance, as I am not aware of its existence any- 

 where near Maulmain, and my house was 70 feet above the level of the River 

 Salween, in which it certainly could not grow. The plants, naturally, were small, 

 yet they furnished very pretty little specimens, some 8 inches high, in full fructiti- 

 cation. 



AsPLENrnir,^ Linn. 



The second largest genus of ferns, "including plants from all parts of the 

 world where ferns grow, of every variety in size, texture, and cutting." Sori, 

 dorsal or marginal, attached to the veins, generally oblique as reganls the medial line 

 of the frond, long and linear, or short and oblong. Indusia the same shape as the 

 sori, bursting along their whole length ; when single, towards the mid-rib ; when 

 double {Diplazium), both ways. 



A. NIDUS-AVIS, L. 



Fronds 4-5 feet long by 6-8 inches broad, undivided, lanceolate, bright gi-ecn, 



' Coratoptcris. Kt'pas-aTos, a horn ; and irrepls. 



• A.splfuium. o priv. and (rirATjr, the spleen ; from supposed power to cure. 



