196 CYSTOPTERIS. 



on the rachis oblong horizontally patent, the rachis winged, 

 pinnules subraembranaceous cuneate subdigitate unequally 



bi- or trifid, tlie segments cuneate, involucres ? Tab. 



LVI. D.).— Davallia achilla3ifolia, Wall. Cat. n. 248. 



Hab. Penaug, Dr. WaUich. — Caudex, if it may be so called, perhaps, 

 more correctly, creeping stipes, many feet long, as thick as a swan's quill, 

 flexuose, branched but compressed or slightly channelled on the underside, 

 destitute of scales, but furnished with short, distant, slightly curved spines 

 on the convex or semiterete side. Fronds (or primary pinnae) small, 4 — 5 

 inches high, almost sessile, narrow-ovate, submembranaceous. Pinnae op- 

 posite or alternate, jointed on the rachis and deciduous, oblong-lanceolate, 

 pinnatifid (or pinnate with a winged rachis), the segments or ultimate pin- 

 nules small, cuneate in the undivided ones, subflabellate in those which are 

 twice or thrice lobed ; the lobes with a single vein. There are small dark- 

 colored deciduous scales scattered on the fronds and rachis. 



The above description, together with our figure, Tab. LVI. D., will give 

 a tolerably correct idea of this singular Fern, or state of a Fern ; for Mr. 

 J. Smith has pointed out to me in his collection a specimen he received 

 from Professor Reinwardt of Leyden, under the name of Lomaria polymor- 

 pha {Lomaria aculeata, Bl. En. Fil. p. 205), which appears almost iden- 

 tical with this. Blume, however, places it among his doubtful Lomariw, 

 and it seems to be the state he alludes to as " var. B. laciniis cuneatis bi- 

 trifidis.'' Mr. J. Smith, too, finds a similar production on specimens of 

 his Stmnochlana {Acrostichum, L.) scanderis, from Mr. Cuming, which he 

 has fully described in his Enum. Fil. Philipp. in Hook. Journ. of Bot. iii. 

 p. 401, where he remarks "these abnormal fronds are usually about 3 inches 

 in length and tripinnatifid, not unlike some delicate multifid species of 

 Damllia or Cheilanthes. They are found on a lengthened rachis, like parts 

 of the rhizoma, which are either smooth or aculeated. From Mr. Cuming's 

 authority and Reinwardt's specimen, there can be now no doubt that it is 

 a peculiar growth, common to more than one species of this genus. I am 

 not, however, in possession of sufficient evidence to enable me to state un- 

 der what circumstances it takes place, although, probably, I am not far 

 wrong in saying that it may be considered analogous to the trichomanoid 

 growth found on the stipes of Hemitelia (Alsophila) Capensis,'' (v. supra, p. 

 37). — In this view of the subject I heartily concur : it will probably be 

 found that the supposed caudex is a stipes, and the supposed reduced and 

 altered fronds are rather pinns than fronds). 



2. Cystopteris, Bernh. 



Polypodii, sp. Linn. Aspidii sp. Sw. and others. Ne- 

 jjhrodium, Mich. Cyathea et Cystea, Stn. Athyrium, Roth. 



Sort globose, situate at the middle of the back of a veinlet. 

 Involucre superficial, thin, membranous, cellular, subglo- 

 bose, cucuUate, more or less acuminated and often jagged, 

 inserted by its broad, inflated base under the sorus (often a 

 little obliquely), and covering that sorus ; its apex directed 

 to the apex of the segment ; at length often reflected. — 

 Tufted Ferns; or the caudex sometimes creeping; chiejly in- 



