﻿Gilbert : Revision of the Bermuda Ferns 595 



at a comparatively late date. The last day that I was out col- 

 lecting in the Walsingham district I came across some fronds that 

 looked quite different from the variety A. Walsingc)ise y but I had 

 seen so much of this fern that I supposed these plants were only 

 another form of that variety and consequently gathered only two 

 or three fronds. On returning to America and unpacking my col- 

 lection, these fronds struck me at once as being larger and more 

 open, with pinnae more deeply cut and more cuneate, than any 

 other Adianta in the collection. On consulting Governor Lefroy's 

 list more carefully, it was found that A. capillus- Veneris was one 

 of the ferns which he "planted out in promising localities about 

 Paynter's Vale (Walsingham district) with a view to their intro- 

 duction." In the case of this species his effort was evidently suc- 

 cessful, and it may now be counted as one of the naturalized species 

 of the island. Very likely it would have been found in other spots 

 visited, if I had been on the look-out for it. 



Adiantum bellum Moore. 



Moore's description of this species was originally published in 

 the Gardener's Chronicle, London, 1879. It was reproduced in 

 the Voyage of H. M. S. Challenger, 1885, but as these publica- 

 tions are to be found only in a few of the larger libraries of this 

 country, and the description is short, it is reprinted here. 



" Fronds tufted, 3 to 6 inches high, bipinnate, ovato-lanceolate; 

 pinnae of 3 to 6 pinnules ]/ 2 to i*/ 2 inch long ; pinnules cuneate or 

 irregularly transverse-oblong, the somewhat larger terminal ones 

 cuneate and divided into two or three shallow lobes, the margin 

 erose, all shortly pedicellate, the pedicels hairlike, not articulated 

 with the pinnule but showing at their apex a short y-shaped ebon- 

 ous furcation which passes into the flabellate venation ; sori vari- 

 ous, two or three on the smaller pinnules short and roundish or 

 longer and sublimate, situated at the apex of the shallow lobes ; 

 indusium entire; caudex thin, shortly creeping with criniform 

 scales ; stipes and rachis ebonous, smooth." 



This is the common fern of the islands. It grows everywhere, 

 on exposed rock surfaces that line the roadsides, on garden walls 

 and sometimes but not often in soil. Moore's description should 

 be modified by making the size 3 to 8 inches, the fronds bi-tripin- 

 nate and the sori long and broad in comparison with the size of 



