CAMPTOSORUS RIITZOrilYI.IXTS. — WAI-KING-LEAF. 6/ 



it will be understood how different in g-eneral appearance 

 an oblong- obtuse frond must be. Mr. Jacob Stauffer collected 

 a form at Mount Joy, according to Dr. Gray, with roundish sori 

 and inconspicuous veins. 



There is one character which is generally constant: the veins 

 seem to cross each other's path, and form a sort of net-work, or as 

 it is technically called, they anastomose. The earlier botanists 

 had overlooked or placed little value on these characters from 

 the veins of ferns, and hence our species was called by Linnaeus 

 Asplenmm rhizophylhun. But the moderns have restricted 

 Asplcnumi to those which have free veins ; that is to say, veins 

 which continue their whole length without touching each other. 

 Our species was taken from Aspleniinn in 1833 by Link, a Ger- 

 man botanist, and called Cmuptosorus, the name being derived 

 from two Greek words, signifying a bent heap, and this because 

 the sori, or the litde long heaps of sporangia, are "generally 

 curved," according to John Smith ; or as Professor Eaton 

 explains, " the indusia of the areoles next the midrib are also 

 often bent at an angle, and the two pordons plainly united." 

 This manner of veining — called in botany, venation — has not 

 proved so constant a character in ferns as it was expected to 

 be by those who first perceived its importance In classificadon. 



In the present instance we have a plant so remarkably near 

 Aspleuium pimiatifidum, that it is difficult for the common 

 observer to see any material difference till he is told to notice 

 whether the veins anastomose. On this anastomosing of the 

 veins, which no morphologist would regard as of great moment, 

 our plant is placed in a genus almost by itself. Professor 

 Eaton is no doubt fully jusdfied in his remark that it is by no 

 means impossible that Camptosorus will be again remanded to 

 Aspleuium, " for it is now pretty generally admitted that differ- 

 ences in venation do not constitute valid generic distinctions ; " 

 and one might add scarcely specific differences either, for in 

 many cases the individual plant varies in this respect. In our 

 plate the frond (Eig. 4), a younger and barren one, is much 



