﻿TAB. IV. 



OpHIOGLOSSUM rALMATUM. 



Spicis pluribus sessilibiis vel breviter pedunculatis ad basin 



frondis palmatae insertls. 

 Ophioglossum palmatum. Plum. Foug, de PAm.p. 139. L 163. 



Linn. Sp. PL p. 1518. IVilld. Sp. PL v. 5- p. 6 1. Spreng. SysL 



Veget. v. 4. j9. 61. 

 Hab. Near a brook at Le fond de Baudin near Leogane, St. 



Domingo, and only there. Plumier. Bourbon, very rare. -M. 



LepervancJie Meyrien. Growing with various epiphytes from 



the axils of the leaves of a species of Palm, at Rio Sein, 



S. Brazil. Mr. Tweedie {n. 519). 



Few if any species of Fern have been considered of such rare 

 occurrence as the present very remarkable one. Of all authors 

 Plumier alone, its first describer, seems to have seen it; and he 

 declares, " Je n* ay jamais rencontre celte plante qu*une seule 

 fois, dans tons mes trois voyages dans les isles d'Amerique'* 

 and that was in the locality above-mentioned. I was then not 

 a little, and certainly most agreeably, surprised, in 1830, to 

 receive the specimen here figured from the isle de Bourbon, 

 through the favour of my obliging correspondent, M. Bouton: 

 and no less so, shortly after, on the arrival of specimens from 

 Mr. Tweedie, which that industrious naturalist collected in 

 South Brazil. There can be no doubt of the specific identity 

 of all the three. Our specimen from Bourbon, the one here 

 figured, is indeed very small : those from S. America are nearly 

 twice the size, but still considerably smaller than the original 

 plant from St. Uoniino^o. 



