ADIANTUM. 23 



81) is referred to A. vaiium, Hiinib. (Nov. Gen. Am. vi. p. IG, f. 667) a 

 species with continuous sori ; while the frucluosum of Kunze " in Poeppig, 

 Fil. Cub. nee in descr." constitutes a new species with Presl, A. macrocar- 

 piim, Pr. Again A. pachysorum, Reichenb., referred hither by Presl, is 

 maintained as a good species by Kunze in Linnsa, 1848, and compared 

 by him with A. villosiim, L. It will thus be seen how difKcult it must be, 

 for any who has not the opportunity of consulting the Herbaria of Berlin, 

 to ascertain what is the true A. prio7iop/u/llii)n, H.B. K. I have been 

 guided by Dr. Klotzsch's reference to Sieber's " n. 196, Synopsis Filicum, 

 from Martinique." This is identical with my plant from the Amazon, Mr. 

 Spruce, n. 49, and with a Surinam specimen from Dr. Miquel ; and from 

 them I have drawn up my character. I possess, however, a host of speci- 

 mens exhibiting forms which, if seen separate, might well be supposed to 

 constitute distinct species, but among which there are intermediate states, 

 and states, too, which seem to me (and I may say also to the very practised 

 eye of Mr. J. Smith) to form connecting links with what the ablest bo- 

 tanist have deemed quite distinct. All that I have brought here have 

 the pinnules elongated and more or less falcate, the curvature pointing 

 upwards. No figure could do justice to this Fern, except on a very 

 large scale. 



44. A. rhonihoideiun, H . B. K. ; " fronds bipinnate, pinnules 

 siibrhomboid shortly petiolate upper margin subcrenate gla- 

 brous exterior angle obtuse, racbis hairy with pilifonn scales, 

 stipes glabrous, sori numerous oblong." H. B. K., Nov. Gen. 

 Am. i. p. 16. Klotzsch, in Linncea^ xviii. p. 551. (Dr. 

 Klotzsch makes 2 vars. .'' " a. laxiiin ; pinnis patentibus 

 laxis. A. serrato-dentatum, [Vilkt. Sp. PL v. p. 445. — jS. 

 strictiim ; pinnis erectis strictis. A. rigidum, Presl, in Herb. 

 Berol.'" [an Tent. Pterid ?). 



Hab. Caripe, Venezuela, H. B. K. — Brazil, WilUl. Essequibo, R. 

 Schoinhurgk. — /3. Cmwuwa., Mnritz ; British Guiana, R. Schomburgh. — 

 Whatever the A. rhomhnideum is, the var. ^3. of Klotzsch, or A. rigi- 

 dum Pr., ought, if Presl knows his own species, to be the fructuosum of 

 Link, Hook. Berol., and that, according to Link, the fructuosum, Kze. in 

 Schkuhr, Suppl. Tab. 15. But I have already, under A. prionuphyllum, 

 had occasion to observe how the learned diflfer on this knotty point. Both 

 Presl and Klotzsch retain this as a species. 



45. A. In.vum, Kze.; "frond bipinnate lax, pinnules 

 subsessile rhomboid obtuse superior base truncated lower 

 one straight superior and exterior margin of the sterile ones 

 duplicato-serrate subincised, sori oblong subcontiguous, 

 rachis and stipes hairy." Kze. in Linnaca, ix. p. 79. 



Hab. Roots of trees, Cuba. Poeppig (Kunze). — "Circumscription of 

 the frond ovate, pinnae distant generally 6, oblong acuminate, lowest pin- 

 nules abbreviated subflabellate, outermost one rhombeo-lanceolale. Tex- 

 ture of the frond membranaceous, glabrous, veined, resembling A. intenne- 

 dium, Sw. (A. fovearum, Raddi, A. triangulatum, Klfo.), but differing 

 much in the form of the pinnules.'' — Kze. 



46. A. Hcenkeanum, Pr. ; " pinnie alternate petiolate ob- 



