226 CHARACTERS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 



distinction being that in the first the sori are lateral, and 

 in the latter terminal. 



Sp. C. semicordata (Sw.) (v v.) ; C. Presliana, /. Sm. 

 (Lastrea Prediana, J. 8m., Cuming's Enumeration, 1841). 



In the " Species Filicum" the latter is made a synonym 

 of A. semicor datum. 



118. NEPHROLEPIS, Schott. (1834). 

 Hook Sp. Fit. 



Vernation fasciculate, erect, stoloniferous. Fronds pin- 

 nate, linear, 1 to 6 feet long ; pinnae numerous, oblong or 

 linear lanceolate and falcate, entire, dentate, or deeply 

 crenate, upper side of the base auriculated, sessile, articu- 

 lated with the rachis. Veins forked ; venules free, clavate, 

 the lower exterior branches fertile. Indusium reniform, or 

 in some nearly orbicular, sometimes equal and conniving 

 with the soriferous crenule, forming a marginal bilabiate 

 cyst. Sori transverse uniserial. 



Type. Aspidium exaltatum, Swartz. 



Illust. Schott. Gen. Fil., t. 3 ; Hook, and Bauer, Gen. Fil., 

 t. 35, 48 A ; Moore Ind. Fil., p. 72, B ; J. Sm. Ferns, 

 Brit, and For., fig. 79 ; Hook. Syn. Fil., t. 5, fig. 45. 



OBS. This is a truly natural genus, very generally 

 distributed over the tropics of both hemispheres. The 

 great uniformity in general character pervading the genus 

 has, however, not prevented authors creating about forty 

 species ; and Fee has even gone so far as to divide them 

 into two distinct genera, which he places far apart in his 

 system, his character in the indusium being reniform in 

 one and nearly orbicular in the other ; but these characters 

 are variable even in specimens of the same suite. On 

 reviewing the whole, the genus appears to me to resolve 



