176 ON TWO NEW CHINESE FERNS. 
gradually diminishing into a finally vanishing margin, and the fewer 
sori readily distinguish it; besides which, it does not dry of the same 
dark hue. I suppose, also, it may be close to 4. glabra, Hassk. (not 
the Gymnosphera glabra of Blume), which is apparently unknown to 
European pteridologists. I fear the late Sir William Hooker, to 
whom I several years since communicated a specimen, must have 
shared my mistake; for, though in the ‘Species Filicum ' he assigns 
to A. gigantea a “ receptacle without hairs," I find no allusion to the 
Chinese plant in the ‘Sy nopsis, except that 4. gigantea (which, fol- 
lowing Moore, but contrary to the opinion of Mettenius, he reduces to 
A. glabra) is recorded as a native of China. 
pt2. Woodwardia angustiloba, n. sp.; stipitibus validis stramineo- 
brunneis lucidis concolori-paleaceis, frondibus amplis rigide coriaceis 
Pae pinnis subpetiolatis lanceolatis 6-8 poll. longis pinnatiseetis 
3 poll. inter se remotis, pinnulis linearibus falcatis acuminatis basali- 
bu inferioribus 3-4 abortientibus supremis in apicem pinnatifidum 
confluentibus margine cartilagineo revoluto obsolete serrulato 2-33- 
pollicaribus 23—3 lin. latis sinu iis æquilato vel etiam latiore sejunctis 
basi decurrente marginem angustum (vix linealem) secus rachin effici- 
entibus subtus secus costam basinque versus conspicue paleaceis, venis 
extra soros semel bisve anastomosantibus in pagina inferiore elevatis, 
soris costs approximatis ultra 20-jugis immersis costam pinnze prima- 
riam non raro attingentibns, indusiis fornicatis brunneis cum margine 
elevato fossulz soriferee coriaceis.—Prope urbem Foochow, Maio 1857, 
coll. Guil. Gregory. 
This remarkable Fern, of which I only possess a single specimen, 
and that wanting the base of the stipes and apex of the frond, is, no 
doubt, closely allied to W. radicans, Sm., and JF. orientalis, Sw. It 
has, however, so totally different an aspect, caused by the copious 
palez on the under surface, and the narrow, linear, distant pinnules or 
segments, separate almost to the base and there decurrent, that T can- 
not believe it to be a variety of either, supposing them to be distinet. 
"The sections into which it has been proposed to divide this genus 
appear to me quite untenable. Thus, it is not invariably the case that 
the veins of W. orientalis anastomose copiously outside the sori. 
have now before a specimen,—proliferous as represented by Hooker,*— 
in. which many of the pinnules have all the veins entirely m whilst 
* Bot. Beechey’s Voyage, t. 56. 
