Mh LOWE, ON MADERAN BOTANY. 525 



dinm elongatum Sw., as formerly supposed, (See Hook. Bot. Mise New 

 Series, I. pp 25, 26.), may very possibly be Aspklium .sphmlosum of 

 Herr Holl's List. 



5. Nephrodmm affine, nob. in Bot. Misc., New Series, I. 25. 



N. fronde subtus hirsutiusculo. bipinnatifido ; pinnis inferioribus 

 brevionbus: pninulis approximatis oblongis, subintegris; apice truncato- 

 rotundatis, muiutissime eroso-denticulatis ; basi tota adnatis: incisuris 

 deorsum acuminatis, sursum latioribus : pinnulis superioribus eonfluen- 

 t.bus: soris biseriatis distinctis : stipite rhachibusque densissime paleaceis. 

 Hab. rarior in Madera umbrosis. ab alt. 1500 ad 3500 pedum. 

 Fronds two or three feet long, disposed in a coronet or circle- be 

 neath with scattered hairs, of a chafFy nature, at the margins and on 

 the nerves of the pinnules. Stipes and rhachis throughout most densely 

 chaffy; the chaffs or scales remarkably large as well as copious. Lower 

 two to SIX pair of pinna smaller and shorter than the middle ones • 

 the lowest very much so. Pinnules closer together than in N. Filil 

 mas: all of them, even the uppermost rounded (not merely obtuse) 

 at the apex; the lowest even truncate. In .V. FiUx max the uppermost 

 are acute, and the lower sometimes scarcely obtuse. The sides of all 

 in A^ affine are nearly entire, or with distant, scarcely perceptible 

 shallow teeth upwards; not in the least incised, or with any tendency 

 to a higher degree of decomposition, like those of N. FUix mm; or 

 of N. elongatum; their rounded apex irregularly notched with very 

 minute shallow teeth, quite different from the obvious serrated teeth 

 of N. Filix mas, and without a lens, scarcely perceptible ; the pinnules 

 appearing entire. Inckures (i. e. the spaces between the pinnules) 

 acute at the bottom, i. e. towards the nerve, and widening upwards 

 or rather outwards; evidently not reaching to the nerve or midrib 

 as they appear to do in N. Filix mas, though really they do not! 

 Hence the base of all the pinnules is in no degree incised on either side, 

 as in A', elongatum ; but the pimiules are adnate by the entire breadth 

 of their base : neither is their lower side arcuato-decurrent as in A^. Filix 

 mas; but the base is truncate and the opposite sides or margins of each 

 pinnule are parallel to each other down to its very bottom, where they 



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