CHARACTERS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 313 



transverse vein, continuous with, and close to the mid-rib ; 

 venules simple or forked, direct, their apices clavate, united 

 forming a pellucid cartilaginous spinulose margin ; fertile 

 segments linear, rachiform, margin membraneous, involute, 

 indusoeform. Sporangia occupying the whole disc of the 

 narrow segment. 



Type. Acrostichum scandens, Linn. 



Illust. Hook, and Bauer, Gen. Fil,, t. 105 B. ; Moore 

 Ind. Fil., p. 3 B. ; J. Sm. Ferns Brit, and For., fig. 

 108 ; Hook. Syn. Fil. t. 7, fig. 60, f. g. 

 OBS. In my original definition of this genus in 1841, 

 the venation is said to be free, which is strictly the case 

 with several species which I then placed under it (now 

 species of Lomariopsis). Since then I have had the oppor- 

 tunity of examining living plants of 8. scandens, in which 

 I find the pinnag of the sterile frond have a transverse 

 anastomose vein continuous with and close to the mid-rib, 

 but which on account of the narrowness of the fertile 

 pinna3 is not evident, the sporangia occupying the whole 

 segment as in Lomaria, which with its narrow involute 

 indusoid margin indicates its affinity to be with the present 

 tribe Blechnece, rather than with Acrostichece. 



Sp. S. scandens (Linn.) (vv.) (Lomaria scandens, Willd.) ; 

 S. Meyeriana, /. 8m. (v v.) (Lomaria, Kze. ; Acrostichum, 

 Meyeriana, Hook. Gard. Ferns, t. 16). 



OBS. The latter is a native of Natal, the first is very 

 generally spread throughout India, the Malayan Archi- 

 pelago, the Philippines, and the Islands of the Eastern 

 Pacific, assuming different appearances according to the 

 various local influences of climate, which has led to its 

 being described by authors under many different names. 

 The sterile pinna? are occasionally variously lobed or 

 sinuose, two of such forms having been named by Wallich 



