'Mi Ai.sorjiii.A. 



mostly entii'e slightly hairy and scaly beneath, sori in 2 or 3 

 series forming an uneqnal broad and more or less interrupted 

 series nearer the costa than the margin. — Mart. l. c. p. 63, /. 

 38. Trichopteris elegans, Pr. 



Hah. Brazil, Sellou; m Hnb. nostr. Woods of St. Paul and Minas Ge- 

 raes, Martins. — This is prohahly a rare, hut very distinct, species. My on- 

 ly s|)eciinen is from the Royal Herharium of Berlin, and was gathered hy 

 Sclluw, prohahly in South Brazil. Besides the much less acuminated pin- 

 nules and the thicker texture, the veins are more sunk and less evident 

 than in the preceding; and the sori are more scattered, forming a very in- 

 terrupted, thick, hroad and irregular linear series ; in this respect, as it 

 were, connecting this section with the preceding, which iudeed Martius has 

 done (Sect. Chsoophoux); and certainly invalidating the characters as dis- 

 tinct genera. The original Chnnophora of Kaulfuss, however, let it he ob- 

 served, is a true Alsophila, {A. viUosa, Kze.) 



Subgen, III. Eualsovhila. Veins free, simple or forked, rather 

 remote, obliquely patent from the main trunk or casta; branches 

 diverging {not parallel). Sori solitary at the base or about the 

 middle of a vein or in the axil of a fork. — Tropical or sub-tropi- 

 cal, of the old and of the netv world ; bi-tripinnate ; pinnules 

 pinnatijid, segments generally small. Sori few and scattered on 

 the segments, or sometimes forming a line, but frequently not a 

 continuous one [owing to the remote or distinct sori) between 

 the margin and costa. Hook. Gen. Fil. tab. 21, 42 & 100. 

 § I. Sori with a spurious Involucre at the inner base. 

 4. A. Capetisu, J, Sm. ; unarmed, fronds triplicato-pinnate, 

 pinnae lanceolate acuminate pinnatifid almost to the rachis, 

 segments narrow-oblong acute falcate membranaceous ser- 

 rated, rachis and costa with small tullate deciduous scales, 

 and one lax laciniated one at the inferior base of each sorus 

 persistent .? veins all simple or very rarely forked dark-co- 

 loured, sori mucii elevated cylindrical generally solitary at 

 the base of the lowest vein on the upper half of the segment. 

 — Poly])odium Capense, L. Aspidium Cap. Siv. Cyathea 

 Cap. S}/i. Hcmitelia Cap. Br., Presl, Mart. Hook. Gen. 

 Fil. t. 42, A. Cyathea riparia, Willd. Amphicosmia riparia, 

 Cardn. in Lond. Journ. of Bot. v. i. p. 441, t. 12 [excellent). 

 — /3. polyantha : sori 4 — 6 on each segment. 



Hah. Moist watery places. Cape of Good Hope, Thunberg and other 

 travellers. Java, Bluine, Millctl. Brazil, Marlins. Organ Mountains, 

 and Villa Rica in Minas Geraes, Gardner [n. .5954). "Trunk or cau- 

 dex 12 — 14 feet high; grows in mountain ravines in many parts of the 

 Cape Colony : there is a noble forest of this Fern in the moist woods above 

 ' Paradise,' on the east side of Table Mountain," Harvey. — Various are the 

 opinions respecting the genus of this elegant arborescent Fern. Mr. Brown 

 placed it in his genus Honilelia, with which it accords in the simple veins 

 and in the presence of a scale under the sori, which that learned botanist, 

 as well as others, considers in the light of a tnie involucre : but to me this 



