228 38. ASPLENIUM, ATHYEIUM. 



Hab. Arctic Europe to Madeira, the Canaries, Algiers, Crete, Himalayas (10-1 2,000 ft.), 

 Kamschatka, and Japan : Africa Abyssinia, Natal, Cameroon Mountains (7,000 ft.) : 

 America Sitka and Labrador to Cuba, Caraccas, and Venezuela. Of the common 

 European forms A. Filix-fcemina is a large plant with narrow lanceolate deeply pinnatifid 

 pinnules ; A. rhceticuni, Roth, is smaller, with the pinnules broader, and not so deeply 

 cut ; A. molle, Roth, thinner in texture, with oblong rhomboidal pinnules \ in. broad ; 

 "and A. latifolium, Bab. (non Presl), a form with the pinnules so broad that they are con- 

 siderably imbricated. The N. America*n A. Martensi, Kunze, and A; Galeottii, Fe*e, do 

 not seem safely separable. The E. Indian A. pectinatum, Wall., is very thin in texture, 

 and has deeply-cut pinnules, with narrow .spreading segments. A. tenuifrons, Wall., is 

 like A. molle, but with the midrib of the pinnse and pinnules beset with firm yellow 

 spines or strigillse ; as is also the case with various Indian, Ceylonese, and Javan forms, 

 with narrower, more slender, and more straggling pinnse and pinnules, as A. gracile, 

 Don ; A. stramineum, J. Sm. ; A. tenellum, Wall. ; A. proliferum, Moore ; and the 

 S. American A. Dombeyi, Desv. The Abyssinian A. Schimperi, Moug. and Fee, has a 

 creeping rhizome, firmer texture, and a bright stramineous rachis. The Natal A. laxum, 

 Pappe and Rawson, is like A. rhceticum, but firmer in texture. Plants from Vancouver's 

 Island and the Rocky Mountains have round sori, with slightly-developed ovate invo- 

 lucres ; and a plant found by Mr. Stansfield in Yorkshire, very delicate in texture and 

 bright-green in colour, with pinnules quite cut down to the rachis into linear-lanceolate 

 segments, which are again deeply incised, produces involucres only very rarely, and is 

 the Phegopteris plumosa of J. Smith (B. and F. Ferns, p. 269). 



193. A. (Athyr.) oxypliyllum, Hk. ; st. firm, erect, 6-12 in. 1., straw-coloured, 

 clothed at the base with large lanceolate-acuminate reddish-brown scales ; fr. 

 1-2 ft. 1., 6-12 in. br., lanceolate, with several distant pinnae on each side, which 

 are 4-8 in. 1., 1-2 in. br. ; pinnl. lanceolate, sometimes auricled on the upper 

 side, in the larger forms again pinnatifid, teeth mucronate ; texture subcoriaceous ; 

 rachis firm, naked, straw-coloured ; veins regularly pinnated ; sori in two rows 

 on the pinnse or pinnl. midway between the midrib and edge ; invol. oblong- 

 reniform. Hk. Sp. 3. p. 221. A. drepanopteron, A. Br. Lastrea eburnea, 

 J. Sm. 



Hab. Himalayas (ascending to 7,000 ft.), Java, and Japan. The midrib of the pinnae 

 on the upper side is often spinulose. This is as variable as A. Filix-fcemina in size and 

 cutting, but the texture is rigid, and the involucre much more like that of Lastrea. 



194. A. (Athyr.) aspidioides, Schlecht. ; st. tufted, 6-12 in. 1., stramineous, 

 slender, naked, except at the base ; fr. 1-2 ft. 1., 8-12 in. br., ovate-deltoid, tri- 

 pinnatifid ; lower pinnae 6-8 in. 1., lanceolate-deltoid ; pinnl. lanceolate, cut down 

 below nearly to the rachis into inciso-pinnatifid ovate segm. 2 lin. br. ; texture 

 herbaceous ; colour dark-green ; both surfaces naked ; rachis stramineous, 

 slender ; sori copious, oblong, the lower ones curved. j3, A. scandicinum, Presl ; 



fr. larger and more finely cut ; segm. deeply pinnatifid, with narrow linear 

 divisions, the whole breadth of which the sori sometimes occupy. A. multi- 

 sectum, Brack. Hk. Sp. 3. p. 223. 



Hab. Ecuador, Sandwich Isles, Neilgherries, Madagascar, Fernando Po, Cape Colony. 

 The extremes differ widely, but some of Dr. Spruce's American examples quite cor- 

 respond with the Cape and E. Indian plant. 



195. A. (Athyr.) brevisorum, Wall. ; st. 12-18 in. 1., erect, slender, naked, 

 greyish ; fr. 2-3 ft. 1., 9-18 in. br. ; lower pinnae 1 ft. or more 1. ; pinnl. lan- 

 ceolate, distant, 2-3 in. 1., 1-1^ in. br. ; segm. lanceolate, f in. 1., 2 lin. br., 

 deeply and sharply toothed ; texture herbaceous ; rachis naked ; lateral veins of 

 the segments forked ; sori small, 6-12 to a segm., in two rows near the midrib, 

 the lower ones curved, often double. Hk. Sp. 3. p. 229. 



Hab. Ava and Mishmee, and gathered lately in the Sandwich Islands by Dr. Hille- 

 brand. Like A. achillecefolium in cutting, but much larger and more compound. 



196. A. (Athyr.) conchatum, Moore ; st. 2 ft. or more 1., stout, erect ; fr. 3-4 



