22 ADIANTUM. 



rally to touch each other horizontal membranaceous or sub- 

 coriaceous dark green rather glossy oblong slightly hairy 

 beneath anteriorly falcate obtuse or acuminate slightly petio- 

 late superior base truncate and parallel with the rachis 

 obtuse, upjier margin and apex incisely lobed, terminal nar- 

 row linear elongate caudate incised, sori several 6 — 9 along 

 the up]ier mai-gin approximate -short oblong rather small, 

 stipes angled and as well as the rachis everywhere clothed 

 with rufous chaffy hairs. — A. prionophyllum, H. B. K. Nov. 

 Gen. Am. i. p. 16. Hook, in Spruce, Herb. Amazon, n. 49. 

 A. tetraphyllum, IVilld. Sp. PI. v. p. 441. Klotzsch,in Lin- 

 na;a, xviii. p. 1551. Miquel, in Herb, nostr. A. ternatum, 

 IVilld. Sp. PI. V. p. 436 [accordiny to Presl, who quotes the 

 n. 20075, in Herb. Willd., which Dr. Klotzsch, in Liu- 

 naa, xviii. p. 551, retains as a distinct species). A rigidum, 

 Link Fit. Sp. 59, not Presl [according to Klotzscli). A. fruc- 

 tuosum, Link Hort. Berol. ii. p. 14, not Kunze {according to 

 Klotzsch). A. elatum, Desv. {according to Presl). A. pa- 

 chysorum, ^^ Reich, in Plant. Sarin.''' [Presl). 



Hab. Tropical America. — "Caripe, Prov. Curaana, Humboldt and Bon- 

 pland. Martinique (sinall), Sieber n. 196, hi Herb, nostr. and n. 370, in 

 Herb. J. Smith. Triiiitlad, Baron de Sc/iach, Aldridge. Jamaica, Wiles 

 and others. Surinam, Miquel. Esmeraldas, Seemann. Tumaco, Hinds. 

 — /3. pinnules cbartaceous or almost coriaceous. Guadeloupe, Le Prieur, 

 [Herb, nostr. Mus. Paris. Adiantum, n. 4). Trinidad, Lochhart, (pinnules 

 less outward). St. Vincent, Rev. L. Guilding [one form approaching A. 

 iuiermediuni, but glossy and not glaucous.) Jamaica, Dr. Bancroft. — 

 y. pinnules shorter, chartaceo-membranaceous, approacbinp: our A. fruc- 

 tuosum. Esmeraldas, Seemann. Fernando Po (African Island), Vogel. — 

 I have unfortunately no means of determining what Adiantum is the 

 tetraphgllum of Willd., or the prionophgllum, H. B. K., having seen 

 no authentic specimen: in the above synonyms I have been chiefly 

 guided by my excellent friend, Dr. Klotzsch, who has made the Fi- 

 lices an especial study, and who is familiar with the species of Willde- 

 now and liink ; olhervviee I should not have ventured to have adduced 

 the A. rigidum, Link, Fil. Sp. {fructuosum of his Hist. Berol.) 

 which the author stales (probably in error) to be a Chilian plant. Dr. 

 Klotzsch assures us (no doubt correctly) that Link's plant is not the 

 fructuosum of Kunze, although Link refers to Kunze's "excellent" 

 figure, nor the A. rigidum of Piesl, although Link quotes Presl as autho- 

 rity, and Presl, under his A. rigidum, quotes the A. fructuosum of Link 

 in Hort. Berol. Such are the different views that different botanists 

 take of one and the same Fern, and which cannot but perplex the 

 student. I think, however, it may be inferred that A. fructuosum of 

 Spreng. and Kzc. is a very nearly allied species to, if not identical with, 

 A. tetraphyllum; and my A. fructuosum, named by Miquel A. trlra- 

 p/iyllum, strengthens such an opinion. Yet yl./)(u7Mo.sH/«, according to 

 Presl, .seems to have been misunderstood by Kunze himself; lor that 

 species of Kunze (meaning I presume that described by Linn;pa, v. 1 1 , p. 



