ALSOFHII.A. HT- 



supposed involucre appears to be of the nature and texture of the huHate 

 scales common on this and other Cyatlieaceous plants, not membranaceous 

 or resembling as it were a pellicle, but soft and succulent and vasculose, 

 similar also to what arc figured by Mr. Bauer at the base of the young sori 

 of Alsophiln nspera. Hook. Gen. I'm,, t.vh. 21, f. 1, 2. Prcsl retains the 

 name of IleuiiO'lia to the present plant, removing from it the other s;iccies 

 which Mr. Brown intended as the types of the genus {Cncmidaria, Pr.), on 

 account of the lower anastomosing veins and the difl'erent form of the in- 

 volucre : ascribing to the present ])lant an "indnsium inlerum, dimidiatuni, 

 semi-involucrans, concavum, latere superiore delioienle ; " and " sonis in 

 qualibet lacinia solitarius ; '' which latter is not a constant character. Mr. 

 Gardner considers it desirable to separate our plants both from Ilcmitelia, 

 Br. and Alsophila, and, finding the species to inhabit the new, as well as 

 the (dd world, gives to it the name of Amp/iirosmia. To this lie aids the 

 Cyathea mtiUi flora, Sm. {Ileiititeiiu, Br.) In the same volume of the ' Lon- 

 don Journal of Botany ' in which Mr. Gardner's paper appears, i\Ir. J. 

 Smith has given his views of the genus Alsop/tila, which he makes to de- 

 pend on the " veins (or venules) forked or simple free, sori axillary or me- 

 dial, involucre semicalyciform or sometimes very small or absent : " — and 

 then he has two sections, the one characterized by the presence of a more 

 or less distinct involucre, and that he subdivides by the simple and forked 

 veins : and thus our A. Capensis comes into his first section, with several 

 other species having spurious or very imperfect involucres. In the union of 

 our plant with Alsophila 1 entirely agree, and only differ fro\n Mr. J. Smith 

 in not laying so much stress as he does upon the value of the supposed iur 

 volucre. The simple or forked veins have the advantage at least of being 

 more apparent : but they are liable to great modiiicalions. Indeed, as re- 

 gards the fructification, there are so many and such insensible gradations 

 from the most perfect enp of Ci/cithea arbnrca to the entirely naked sori of 

 true Alsophila, and the slight differences in venation are accompanied by 

 so little of natural habit, that the older Pteridologists were not very wrong 

 who looked upon the whole of this group as one genus, Cijathea. 



So far from the sorus being universally solitary on each segment of this 

 species, I possess specimens with as many as six upon a segment : when that 

 is the case, the one or two lower ones (as may also be observed when solita- 

 ry) is at the base of a vein ; ])ut the others are placed higlur up. I have 

 occasionally seen a forked vein, but have never observed the sorus in the 

 axil of it. Receptacles always very long, cylindrical, hairy. — Extended as 

 the remarks are already on the Alsophila Capensis, I must not quit the subject 

 without mentioning a remarkable change, as it appears, that many of the 

 pinna) have undergone on the lower part of the stipes. They mav be called 

 abortive pinnae, and are short, 3—4 inches long, many times miiltifid, with 

 narrow linear membranaceous hyaline segments with a rigid eosta ; and at 

 first sight so much resembling some Trichomanes ox Ilymiiiophi/llum in a 

 barren state, growing parasitically on the Alsophila, that Ivauii'uss has de- 

 scribed them under the name of Tricho manes P connophi/lluin, {L'tiuni. Fil. 

 p. 266). — The specific appellation '■'■ riparia,^' Willd., selected l)y Mr. 

 Gardner, is doubtless more appropriate, now that the plant has been found 

 not only at the Cape, but in Ja\a and in Brazil : but this circumstance 

 scarcely warrants the change of an old Linnaan name. 



5. A. laiebrosa, Wall. ; stipes and main vacliis nnnicated 

 with short elevated ])oints, fronds bipinnale, ))inniV' lanceolate, 

 pinnnles narrow -lanteolate acmiiinate piniiiiiilid ahiiosl lo 



