154 POr.YSTICTIUM ANGULARE, 



separating tlicm. However Mr. Elworthy says that this plant 

 has all the fronds furcate, giving a very singular appearance; 

 Mr. Wollaston, on the contrary, remarks that he has never seen 

 its fronds shewing tendency to be divided at the apex, or to 

 branch in the rachls; and Mr. Swynfen Jcrvls, confirming Mr. 

 Wollaston's observations, says that his plant is not furcate, 

 and at the same time a Simon Pure from Mr. - Elworthy's 

 original specimen. I must therefore conclude that Avhen 

 thoroughly established all the plants will resemble Mr. Elworthy's. 

 Under this present uncertainty I have been additionally induced 

 to adopt Elworthii, for if the plants discovered by Mr. Wol- 

 laston remain in their present character, the name Cruciatum 

 may be applied to them, Avhilst Mr. Elworthy's will retain that 

 of Elworthii. Mr. Wollaston remarks that as Mr. Elworthy's 

 plants were found some miles from where he found his, (both, 

 however, in Somersetshire,) they may vary. 



Length of frond about twenty-two inches, of which the lower 

 six inches is occupied by the rachls; frond exceedingly narrow 

 at the base, gradually widening to the apex, where it divides 

 into two branches, which are flexuous, curling round and 

 hanging down; width of frond at base one inch, in the centre 

 three inches, and at the apex four inches and a quarter. The 

 four or five basal pairs of pinnae opposite, or sub-opposite, the 

 remainder alternate; about seventeen pairs of pinna), becoming 

 larger to the apex. Distinctly stalked, and divided at the base 

 close to the rachls into forked pairs of pinme, so as to give the 

 appearance of a cruciform arrangement; the upper one ascending 

 at a greater or less angle, and the lower one descending at an 

 equal angle, the angle being greater towards the base, an 

 additional cause of lessening the width of the frond; the basal 

 pimiffi however are only three quarters of an inch in length, 

 ■whilst the apical pinna; are three inches and a half in length. 

 Several of the basal pinmc do not branch at their base into 

 two distinct pinmc, and these are bifid at their apices. The 

 pinnae are somewhat distant, but owing to half of them ascending 

 and the other half descending, they cross each other at right 

 angles, and give the frond a crowded appearance. The pinnules 

 are in the lower half of the frond Imbricate, and in the upper 

 half approxinuTte. The lower ones entire, with a serrate, spinous 

 edge, and a brief auricle, and briefly stalked; the upper ones 



