40 FERNS : BEITISH AND FOREIGN. 



so finely cut as T. hymenophyloides. Davallia Fejc- 

 ensis is a species with, highly decompound fronds, 

 a foot or so high, having the segments so narrow 

 that they bear only a single sorus upon each. A 

 species of Hemonites, H. lanceolata, and Syngramme 

 pinnata, are found in these islands ; the latter having, 

 on old plants, large pinnate fronds about one to two 

 feet high, including the rather long stipes, the first 

 simple lanceolate fronds from a foot to eighteen 

 inches high, but it is questionable whether these 

 simple fronds be not merely a state of the latter 

 plant, for other species of Syngramme are known 

 to have simple fronds as well as pinnate. Allied to 

 Syngramme is the long and well-known Tcenites blech- 

 noides, which has a wide geographical range, but is 

 not yet introduced alive ; the form usually seen in 

 herbaria from the Malayan islands has large simply 

 pinnate fronds, with long tapering pinnae, like Blech- 

 num orientale. 



There is also another Fijian Fern, desirable as much 

 on account of its botanical character as from the 

 singularity of its appearance, viz., Dididopteris angus- 

 tissima, which grows epiphytically on trees, chiefly 

 the Tahitian chestnut (Inocarpus edulis), in the 

 manner of Vittaria, and has narrow, thin, grass-like 

 fronds, varying from six inches to a foot in length. In 

 all the Fijian specimens I have seen, the fructification is 

 seated in a groove upon a vein running along the side 

 of the midrib, and parallel with it, though in the 

 generic character drawn up by Brackenridge, it is 

 said to be normally in two rows, one on either side of 

 the midrib ; but, as Brackenridge alludes to its being 

 occasionally on one side only, I am not disposed to 



