4 ADIANTUM. 



large, broad-ovate, long-petioled, sharply acuminated, quite entire (under 

 the microscope said to be obsoletely serrulate), the rachis and stipes quite 

 glabrous, but the sori are not contiouous, — they are broken up into several 

 large, broad, and more or less elongated contiguous ones. Kunze, in his va- 

 luable 'Analecta Pleridogvaphica,' gives a figure and description unques- 

 tionably of the same species (from Pampayaco, in Peru) ; one specimen 

 represented at his f. B. (Tab. 20) is the very prototype of Swartz's figure. 

 Unfortunately my specimen of Poepp. Plant. Exsicc, from Professor Kunze 

 himself, is a very different fern, and a rather unusually large state of A. 

 Kaulfussii (A. obliquum, Sieh., Hook. S,- Grev.), with short petioles, nar- 

 rower and smaller, gradually acuminated pinn®, the sterile ones, or sterile 

 portions, slightly lobed and conspicuously serrated, narrow sori and downy 

 rachis. Presl, too, cites A. ■plalyphyllum of Poeppig, Plant, exsicc, under 

 A. obliquum (meaning no doubt the A. Kaulfussii, Kze. Herb, and 

 Klotzsch, often taken for A. obliquum), and retains A. plati/phyllum of 

 Swartz as a distinct species. I can only do the same, referring to the 

 latter the Jlgure of Kunze above quoted. 



6. A. lucidum, Sw. ; frond oblong pinnate rarely below 

 subbipinnate, pinna3 alternate on short petioles approximate 

 ovato-lanceolate or lanceolate much acuminate rarely obtuse 

 chartaceous the sterile serrated ones the broadest olivaceous 

 green and glossy on both sides, the margins at the superior 

 base truncate parallel with the rachis, lower margin dimidiato- 

 cuneate, sori continuous uninterrupted along both margins 

 to their apex, stipes and especially the rachis rough with fer- 

 ruginous hairs. (Tab. LXXIX. C.) — Siv. Sijn. Fil. (excl. syn. 

 o/"Pteris lucida, Cav. ?J. Kze. in LintKBa, hi. p. 78 (who ad- 

 duces here A. asperum, Desv., Pteris aspera, Poir. 8f Presl J. 

 A. Poeppigianum, Presl, Tent. Pterid. {name). — B. major. — y. 

 veins of the pinna) often anastomosing. (Tab. LXXIX. C. f. 4). 



Hab. Tropical America and West-Indian Islands. /3. Cayenne, LePrieur. 

 — y. Caripi, near Para, R. Spruce, n. 39. — This is a common plant, and 

 I have copious specimens from various tropical regions of the New World ; 

 yet I can find it nowhere figured (unless Humboldt's A. varium, Nov. Gen. 

 Am. t. 667, be the same, as I am sometimes disposed to believe it is) and no- 

 where satisfactorily described. It is clearly allied to A. obliquum, Willd., 

 in fomi and general aspect, but is generally larger, and at once distin- 

 guished by the continuous line of fructification, of the length of the margin. 

 I refer this to the little known or little understood A. lucidum, Swartz, that 

 is, to his American specimen (for the Pteris lucida, Cav., from the Philip- 

 pines, has probably nothing to do with it), because his character accords 

 sufficiently well to justify me in doing so, and because Kunze, judging from 

 his remarks in the ' Linnjea,' 1. c, seems to have the same plant in view for 

 A. lucidum. He compares it with A. obliquum. Hook. & Grev. (A. Kaul- 

 fussii, Kze.) Its affinity is indeed with that and with the true A. obliquum, 

 W., but both those have interrupted sori. In size it is extremely variable, 

 from eight or ten inches to two feet, as in some Guiana specimens. — My 

 var. y. is a remarkable one, for it exhibits the closest affinity with the pre- 

 sent species in everything but the frequent anastomosing of the nerves on 

 all the leaflets. 



