32 FERNS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



both hemispheres, and many of them would be highly 

 prized by fern-growers. Amongst other Guiana Ferns 

 worthy of notice there is one to which I would wish 

 particularly to draw attention, not only on account of 

 its singularity, but of the little that is known of it by 

 pteridologists. I allude to the Dancea simplicifolia of 

 Rudge, of which I have only seen two specimens, one 

 in Rudge' s herbarium, and the other in Schomburgk's 

 Guiana collection. In general appearance the sterile 

 fronds of this Fern resemble those of Elaphoglossum 

 lati/olium, being about eight inches in length (including 

 the stipes) and of an ovate-lanceolate form, attenuated 

 to the base, while the fertile ones are narrower, and 

 still more attenuated downwards. Nor must I omit 

 to notice the very remarkable Hewardia adiantoides 

 of French Guiana, still very rare in herbaria. It 

 would be a noble addition to our large species of 

 Adicmtum, its fronds being two or three feet high, 

 very broad, and irregularly bi-pinnate, with remote, 

 alternate, petiolate pinnules from three to five inches 

 long, and about two inches wide, and borne upon 

 glossy black stipes. Closely allied to this is the 

 Hewardia dolosa of Eastern Brazil, Surinam, and 

 Ecuador, with much longer but comparatively nar- 

 rower pinnules and rough hairy stipes. There is also 

 in Dutch and British Guiana, as well as in Brazil (in 

 the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro), a species of the 

 curious Schizceaceous genus, Actinostachys (A. pennula, 

 Hook.), resembling the Ceylon A. digitata, already 

 in our gardens, though extremely rare. While 

 the beautiful Schizcea flabellum, with its fern-shaped 

 fronds, cleft into two to form broad wedge-shaped 

 segments, and upon stipes a foot or so high, is found 



