524 Mr LOWE, ON MADERAN BOTANY. 



3. Asplenium productum, nob. 



A. fronde deltoidea, apice caudata s. longe acuminata, glaberrima, 

 lucida, quadripinnatifida : pinnis primariis productis, acuminatis ; ultimis 

 oblongo-cuneatis, apice inciso-dentatis : soris confertis, mox confluenti- 

 bus : stipite fusco, Isevi, basi hirsutiusculo. 



Aspl. acutum, Holl's List of Mad. Plants in Hook. Bot. Misc. New 

 Series, T. p. 15 ; baud Bury ! 



Aspl Adiantiun nigrum var. nob. Ibid. p. 24; hand Linn. 



Hab. in Madera, ab altitudine 1000 ad 3000 pedum ubique vulga- 

 tissimum. 



This very common fern, the Asplenium Adinntum nigrum of most 

 former lists of Maderan plants, I would now admit to be sufficiently 

 distinct from the European species properly so called ; the characters 

 above enumerated proving permanent and uniform. With HoU and 

 others I had long imagined it identical with Aspl. acutum Bory : but 

 to my surprise, a specimen so ticketed, and obligingly communicated 

 to me by its author the Baron himself, is a very different plant in- 

 deed : being undistinguishable from large narrow-leaved fruit-bearing 

 Maderan specimens of my Asplen. canariense W . 



Asplen. productum is distinguished from the true Aspl. Adiantum 

 nigrum L. by its more compound, finely divided frond ; the contour 

 of which, as my friend Mr Arnott has well observed, is triangular or 

 deltoid ; while in the European plant, the shape is rather that of a 

 rectangle or oblong, terminated by a triangle ; the sides being parallel 

 for some length from the base. But the chief character of the Maderan 

 plant is found in the caudate or produced extremities of the primary 

 divisions. The apex of the frond especially is gracefully attenuated 



With Asplen canariense W. as understood at least by me, (A.iplen. 

 acutum Bory !) Aspl. productum has very little indeed in common. 



4. Nephrodium fcenisecii /3. productum, Primit. p. 7- 



A plant certainly bordering very closely upon the true Aspidium 

 spinulosum W. and Sm in Eng. Flora; but which, on account of the 

 less degree of parallelism in the sides of the ultimate divisions, the 

 smaller punctiform sori, and above all the fragrant scent, I still think 

 best referred to Nephrodium fcenisecii. However this, rather than Aspi- 



