56 16. HYMENOPHYLLUM. 



GEN. 15. LOXSOMA, Br. 



Sori marginal, in the sinus of the teeth or lobes, terminating a vein, declined. 

 InvoL suburceolate, coriaceous, the mouth truncated, entire. Recept. elongated, 

 much exserted, clothed to the apex with stipitate caps, (mixed with jointed hairs), 

 which have a short broad incomplete oblique ring, opening vertically. Caudex 

 long, stout, creeping, paleaceous. Fr. long -stipitate, coriaceous, decompound, glaucous 

 beneath. Veins simple or forked. TAB. II. f. 15. 



1. L. Cunninghami, Br. Sp. p. 86. Gard. F. t. 31. 



Hab. N". Zealand ; Northern Island. Fr. 1-1 ^ ft. high. A remarkable Fern, with 

 the habit of a coriaceous Dicksonia; the fructification rather of Trichomanes, but with a 

 very short and oblique ring to the capsule. 



GEN. 16. HYMENOPHYLLUM. 



Sori marginal, more or less sunk in the frond or exserted, terminating a costa 

 or vein. Invol. inferior, more or less deeply 2-lipped or 2-valved, of nearly the 

 same texture as the frond, toothed, or fringed, or entire. Recept. elongated^ 

 columnar, exserted or included. Caps, mostly orbicular, depressed, attached by 

 the centre, furnished with a broad transverse ring, opening irregularly at the 

 apex. Small, sometimes very minute Ferns, of tropical and temperate climates, 

 frequenting trunks of trees and damp rocks, the fronds delicately membranaceous in 

 texture, often of a lurid or olivaceous green, simple or compound, costate or with simple 

 or branched (never anastomosing] veins.-)- TAB. II. f. 16. 



* Fronds glabrous, simple or slightly lobed, or once or twice dichotomous. 

 Sp. 1-5. 



1. H. cruentum, Cav. ; st. slender, naked, 3-6 in. 1. ; fr. ovate-lanceolate, 

 slightly sinuated, 3-5 in. 1., 1-1^ in. br. below ; the veins simple, prominent, 

 branching from the costa to the margin at regular intervals, erecto-patent ; sori 

 6-12 on each side, placed at the apex of the sinuations, the cuneate base sunk in 

 the frond, the lips divided about half-way down, free, entire. Hk. Sp. Fil. 1. 

 p. 87. t. 31. A. Hymenoglossum, Presl. 



Hab. Chili, especially in the province of Valdivia. Quite peculiar in its habit of 

 growth. 



2. H. parvifolium, Baker ; st. not more than 1 line 1. ; fr. very minute, 2-3 

 lines 1., 1 line br., linear-oblong, simple or cleft at the apex, sometimes half-way 



f The principal, or at any rate the most copious, recent writer on Trichomanes and 

 Hymenophyllum is the late Dr. Van den Bosch, whose magnum opus, the " Hymeno- 

 phyllaceae Javanicae," contains engravings of many of the species, which, in point of beauty 

 and delicacy of execution, have rarely been equalled. But his views, and their practical 

 carrying out with regard to the limitation of genera and species, were the very opposite 

 of those of Sir William Hooker, as may be judged from the fact that in his Synopsis and 

 Supplement, 450 so-called species are given, and that out of what are here considered 

 two genera, he makes twenty-four. Upon this point Sir William Hooker wrote : " This 

 genus and the following one have had their species multiplied to an extent with which I 

 cannot at all concur. The late learned Dr. Van den Bosch, in his widely- scattered publi- 

 cations, has no doubt described many new species, which it has not been in my power to 

 identify ; but having been favoured with his opinion on a large portion of my collection, 

 I regret to be compelled to join with my friend Dr. Grisebach in the opinion expressed 

 in his 'Flora of the British West-Indian Islands,' that many of the species are not well 

 founded." 



