CHEISTENSEN— FEENS OP SEYCHELLES AND ALDABEA 415 



canaliculati, sursum anguste alati, ad 7 cm. Jongi. Lamina pinnata, lanceolata, 

 usque ad 20 cm. longa, 5 cm. lata, versus apieem pinnatifidum seu grosse serratuin, 

 breviter acvimiuata, viridis, omnino glabra, textura caruosula. Bachis complanata, 

 a basi ad apieem alata, alls 1 mm. latis. Finiice numerosae, 2| cm. loug^e, 1 cm. 

 latse, suberectae, inferiores vix abbreviatse, breviter petiolatse, ad rachiu articulatJB, 

 basi inferiore cuneatse, superiore truncatae, saepe subauriculatse, marginibus apiceque 

 obtuso grosse serratis. Vence indistinctse, simplices, obliquse. Sori mediales, 1-2 mm. 

 longi, 1 mm. lati, indusiis margiue integris. 

 Silbouette, Gardiner ! 



This new species resembles the Australian A. obtusatum, Forst., in colour and texture 

 and the short thick sori, but in general habit it is not unlike A. tenerum, from which it 

 diflPers in its short sori, fleshy texture, and winged rachis. It is a well-known fact that 

 several pinnate species of Asplenkmi vary extraordinarily in cutting. The most cut 

 forms are often dareoid, i. e. the ultimate segments are narrow with the sori mareinal. 

 Such dareoid varieties look very different from the pinnate forms of the same species, 

 and they are commonly described as proper species. It has, however, been proved by 

 botanists who have studied the dififerent forms in the field that certain old species of 

 Barea really are dareoid forms of species which, in the " normal " state, are pinnate 

 only. Thus is Darea bifida, Bory, the dareoid variety of A. Uneatum, Sw. ; D. Belangeri, 

 Bory, of A. tenerum. Dareoid forms are especially common in the Mascarenes and 

 South Africa, and some of them are not known in the pinnate state. My proposed new 

 species, A. complanatum, may be the pinnate form of a species which so far is known as 

 dareoid only, viz. Aspletiium borhonicum. Hook., a species from Reunion and Mauritius, 

 but not known from the Seychelles. It is very probable that such is the case, but 

 I cannot prove it at present, and I therefore think it best to describe the new form as a 

 new species. 



32. AsPLENiTJM CAUDATUM, Forst. ; Baker, Fl. Maur. 488 ; C. Chr. Ind. 104. 



Mahe, Home, 668 ! Thomasset ! Silhouette, Gardiner ! " A typical fern of the 

 1000-2000 feet zone in fairly open places." 



Var. MINOR, C. Chr. (var. nov.) : — Lamina 20 cm. longa, pinnis 3 cm. longis, |-1 cm. 

 latis, apice acutis nee caudatis. 



Mahe and Silhouette, Gardiner ! 



This variety is a very doubtful form, in size and general habit very much resembling 

 A. pellueidum, Lam., to which species Baker (Fl. Maur. 487) referred a specimen from 

 the Seychelles {coll. Kirk 1). It differs from that species in its lower pinnae being not at 

 all reduced. I think I am right in considering it a small form of A. caudaUtm, from 

 which it differs in its small size and non-caudate pinnae, whilst it agrees with it in colour, 

 texture, pubescence, and other characters. A specimen from Silhouette {Gardiner) is 

 exactly intermediate between the large A. caudatiim and the variety. 



A. caudatum is a cosmopolitan tropical species. 



SECOND SEEIES— ZOOLOGY, VOL. XV. 53 



