CHARACTERS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. | 995. 
Although the species are to all appearances few, their 
wide distribution has led to the creation of above a dozen 
Species, which in the “ Species Filicum " are reduced to five, 
and in the * Synopsis ” to one only. Their mode and places 
of growth are similar to O. aquilina ; among bushes or 
underwood they assume a scandent character, and often 
attain a great length. They are chiefly found within or 
near the tropics of both the old and new world, their most 
southern limit being Tasmania. 
Sp. H. incisa ( Thunb.) (v v.); H. vespertilionis (Lab.) 
(v v.) (Nov. Holl, t. 245) ; H. aurita (BL) (v v.) (Mett. Fil. 
Hort. Lips, t. 14) ; H. sinuata (Brack. Fil., t. 14). 
Sect. 2.— Heinz free. 
169. Prenis, Linn. in part (1737). 
Hook. Sp. Fil. 
Vernation fasciculate and erect or decumbent, or sarmen- 
tose uniserial Fronds pinnate, bi-tri-quadripinnate, rarely 
simple, from a few inches to 6 or 7 feet high; the ultimate 
. segments entire, sinuose, lobed or pinnatifid. Veins forked ; 
Sterile venules free, the apices of the fertile transversely 
combined by the receptacle, forming a linear marginal 
Sorus, furnished with an exterior attached linear indusium. 
Type. Pteris longifolia, Linn. 
Illust. Hook. and Bauer, Gen. Fil., t. 64 A. ; Moore, Ind. 
Fil., p. 80, fig. 1—4; J. Sm., Ferns, Brit. and For., 
fig. 96; Hook., Syn. Fil., t. 3, fig. 31 a. b. 
 Ons,— This is an extensive genus, containing according 
to the “Species Filicum " about sixty-three species, but 
` Which, in the “ Synopsis” are reduced to forty-two. The 
Species present great variation in the circumscription of 
