210 CHAEACTEES OF TEIBES AND GENEEA. 



or connected, this species, with several others, including 

 Goniopteris Sandvicense and its allies, seems to form a 

 natural group, which, with Lastrea villosa, may, on the 

 character of general habit, be viewed as forming a natural 

 genus of sub-arboroid Ferns. 



109. MESOCHIJENA, E. Br. (1838). 



Sphcerostephanos, J. 8m. (1838) ; NepJirodium sp. Hook. 

 Sp. Fil. 



Vernation fasciculate, erect. Fronds 2 to 4 feet high, 

 bipinnatifid. Veins costaeform, pinnate ; the lower pair of 

 venules anastomosing, the others free, parallel. Receptacles 

 medial, elongated, jffori oblong linear. Indusium oblong, 

 attached longitudinally on the centre of the receptacle, 

 having sporangia on its axis on each side, its margin free. 



Type. Poly podium villosum and P. caudigerum, Wall. 



Illust. Hook, and Bauer, Gen. Fil., t. 24; Hook. Fil. 

 Exot., t. 62 ; Moore Ind. Fil., p. 43, B ; J. Sm. Ferns, 

 Brit, and For., fig. 66. 



OBS. This genus was first noticed by Brown in Hors- 

 field's "Planta Javanica," and about the same time de- 

 scribed by me in Hooker and Bauer's " Genera Filicum " 

 under the name Sphcerostephanos. Later observations have 

 led me to view it as scarcely distinct from Nephrodium, 

 with which the species agree in habit. The only difference 

 that Brown and myself considered as generic consists in 

 the sori being oblong linear, and furnished with an 

 elongated indusium attached along the centre of the sorus, 

 having the appearance of being double, like that of some 

 species of Athyrium, but in Meschlcena it is in a single 

 piece, and cannot be viewed otherwise than as a lengthened 

 reniform indusium of NepJirodium fitted to the lengthened 



