S44 FILICES. 
Cy 
t ‘be considered as belonging 
3. their elegantly delicate one or 
nearly iaempornt tents ving them altogether a dif- 
ferent character. Baie = of them have erect 
events ; but, on the contrary, like the Musci, their stems 
are a creeping along the moist and shelving 
rocks, seldom msing above a few inches from the sur- 
face. Indeed, some species having their involucra on 
slender footstalks projected from the margin, and in the 
Fr prfrum kde a such as the 7. radicans, 
Fysidiferum, trichoideum, and muscoides, possess more 
of mosses than of ferns. 
a the aspect of these beautiful ferns have simple or undi- 
rile ond, The. 7. renjforme hes very entire = 
shaped fronds. It is figured. by Schk 
Capt. pt Habe 134.) The 7. cuspidatum has. fronds 
eh ae ovate, bluntly peinted.and truncate 
at atthe b base; undulated, and crenate.on the margin, 
aeely veined, and bearing the cups towards the point, 
on » mannin et, Alea: frond. The ZT. membranaceum 
-has the fronds sessile, obovate, blunt, and as if torn on 
-the margin. Plumier (Americ. 34, tab. 50, and Fil. 
tab, 101,) has this singular species, ‘under the 
descriptive definition of adianlum muscosum lichenis pe- 
irei facie. It is also figured by Plukenet, tab. 285. T. 
muscoides is figured Sloan, (Jem: p- 73. tab. 29, fig. 
1.) under the definition of “ is scandens minima, 
musci facie.’ The frond of 7. scandens. attains the 
height of nearly a foot, and is the tallest of the 
genus, and, like many others, it has the fronds three or 
= times pinnate. The frond of 7. giganteum is 
also about a foot in length ; the stem of these two, like 
all the rest, creeping along the surface ot oe 40 
“al describes thirty-four species. 
~ £6.) Hymenophyllum. (Willd. 1982. “Smith, Act. 
Taur. 5. p. 418, tab. 9. fig. 8.) 
in marginal groups, inserted into a cylin- 
anil tasepeicle, inélu within a bivalve Saar 
crum. 
The only British species is the H. Tunbrid; ants 
Smith Flor. Brit, and Eng. Bot. tab. 162,) with d 
cra and bipinnatifid, and the ‘border of the fied u- The 
the frond itself, serrate ; the cups solitary, 
end attached to’the margin of the axils of ‘the plows 
it is sin that this ies should be also found in 
New Hi It is by Labillardiere, (Nov. Hol. 
tab. 250). ‘The remaining thet -five species are natives 
of the West Indies and South Sea islands, and of Java, 
Mauritius, and Bourbon islands. ‘Labillardiere mentions 
one, viz. via Australis, from New Holland. ‘To these, 
however, Brown has added two new species from the 
same country, viz, H.rarum and H. nitens, (vide Prodr. 
Nov. Hol. p. 159.) The H. nitens, has tripinnatifid, 
lanceolate, smooth fronds, linear obtuse obtuse submarginate, 
entire lacinie ; terminal involucra, with ovate orbicu- 
_lar valves, 
The Hymenophyllum rarum again has bipinnatifid, lan- 
ceolate, smooth, and open fronds, the borders on the mar- 
» gin very entive pee amsencones Bide ;\he inves 
terminal, with round. valves: = 
The Hymenophylla, coset eer olserved, have all the 
habit or external appearance of 
XI. BOTRYCHIACEE (Plate. peer Figs. 21, 22.) 
The Botrychium, which we select as the of this 
tribe, forms a link widel deustes teardecmeran 
eto It is incl in the last edition of the 
Plantarum by Willdenow, with the ; 
Dorakardiag and » under. ritles 
with neither-of which sa tuen te lan tint affinity 
whatever, if structure ‘ded, as it ily x 
be the only solid basis of a natural ent, In 
external , indeed, Ophioglossum slightly re- 
sembles this genus. The | es in both are close. 
» The moststrikin g-peculiarity i 
och can a te eae 
ded within a membranous spathe, which bursts as 
shoot from the subterraneous stem ; whereas in tl 
invariably covered with woolly scales. Wome iets 
that Swartz has denied that the buds Rey 
is clear, that, in this respect, | nearly approach 
the rest ofthe ferns. Thee is as yet but one genus 
wn, . yr 
Botrychium. (Swartz, Synops. Fil. 8.) on 
ules in a compound distic sspike ening i 
a Sintetion parallel with MxF insé r 
1. B. lunaria. This is the 
x - 1) 
if snl of afin, Gone 
ria of the Sp. Plant. Lin. p. 1519, ot Hofinan or 
II. Tf and Roth, Germ, 1.and 444. The stipes extend. 
ing to the 1 of about five inches, with the frond 
bluntly pointed, attached towards 
lobes of the pine: are crescent-shaped, nearly sessile, 
ing “oo 
and imbricated, succulent, : and of a 
north of uw 
(wie. Sp. Epes 5. p. 
the two rat Lif 
both being naked. — : - ~~ 
The remaining six bieeiase’ by ao 
denow, from their evider Avr habits, require a 
closer examination, Whoever consults the accurate 
El 
7 
Pas 
