146 CHARACTERS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 



long, 2 to 3 inches broad, the upper pairs of pumas con- 

 tracted and fertile. Veins uniform, reticulated, forming- 

 numerous elongated subquadrangular parallel areoles. 

 Sporangia densely occupying the whole of the under surface 

 of the fertile pinnae. 



Type. Acrostichum aureum, Linn. 



Illust. Hook, and Bauer. Gen. Fil., t. 81 A.; Moore 

 Ind. Fil., p. 8, B; J. Sm. Ferns, Brit, and For.> 

 fig. 54. 



OBS. This genus was founded by Linnaeus in 1737, 

 the typical species being Acrostichum aureum, but subse- 

 quently he, and other authors, added numerous other 

 species to the genus, indeed it may be said that all Ferns 

 in which the sporangia were not evident in well defined 

 Tound or linear masses were referred to this genus, as 

 shown by Moore's " Index Filicum," in which no less than 

 473 generic and specific names are recorded, of which 

 about 140 now constitute the tribe Acrosticlieoe : the prin- 

 cipal are given as examples under the respective new 

 genera as above defined. 



The genus Acrostichum, as here restricted, consists of 

 only one species, namely, A. aureum, which is found in 

 most Fern regions throughout the tropics of both hemi- 

 spheres, which under the different influences of climate, 

 and growing in wet or dry places assumes very different 

 aspects as regards size and texture, such being the case, 

 has led to a dozen or more specific names being given by 

 authors to the different states. In the " Species Filicum " 

 they are all recorded as synonyms, in which I concur. 



Sp. A. aureum, Linn. (A. marginatum, Schk., A. incequale, 

 Willd., A. speciosum, Willd., A. dancefolium, Lang, et Fisch., 

 A. fraxinifolium, JR. J5r., A. sculpiuratum, Presl, A. obliquum, 

 1., Chrysodium Jiirsutum, Fee.*). 



