. several of which are recorded as synonyms in the “ Synop- 
| 802 CHARACTERS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 
. Oss.—Of the twenty-two species here enumerated 
eighteen have come under my notice in a living state, 
sis Filicum,” but my observations on the living plants 
satisfy me that the above are sufficiently distinct to be 
viewed as species. The synonymy of many of the species 
is, however, most difficult to unravel, for instance, B. 
orientale has no less than thirty-eight, and B. occidentale 
nearly twenty synonyms. 
. Blechnum melanopsis of the “ Species Filicum” is described 
as being a pinnate species, about a span in length, similar 
in appearance to a young frond of B. orientale, but differing 
from Blechnum in having reticulate venation, which Mr. 
Moore has thought proper to adopt as characteristic of a 
distinct genus, which he names Blechnidium. The descrip- 
tion of this Fern is taken from a solitary frond gathered in 
Khasya, which probably may turn out to be a young state - 
of a Woodwardia. | 
171.—Lowanu, Willd. (1809). 
Hook. Sp. Fil. ; Blechnum sp. auct. ; Stegania, R. Br. 
Vernation uniserial, sarmentose or fasciculate, erect, cæs- 
pitose or subarborescent. Fronds simple, pinnatifid, or pin- 
nate, rarely bipinnatifid, 1 to 3 feet high, the fertile always 
contracted. Veins (of the sterile frond) forked ; venules 
free, their apices usually clavate ; fertile segments rachi- - 
form, veins obsolete, or more or less evident, and by their 
_ Contiguity forming a broad, transverse, continuous, sporan- 
.. giferous receptacle, the sporangia becoming confluent over 
the whole disc of the segment, Indusium linear, sub-intra- 
marginal vaulted, and involute, the margin oppositély : 
