ADIANTUM. 41 



a rather large soriis at the bottom, involucres renifonn-cor- 

 date submembranaceoiis, stipes and slender rachis everywhere 

 ebeneous glossy glabrous. (Tab. LXXVI. B.) A. veniistuni, 

 Don, Proclr. Fl. iXep. p. 16. Wall. Cat. ii. SI. 



Hab. Noilliern India. "S epii), IlaniilUm ; and at Sreini<^<?iir, Kimiroop, 

 Wallich. Simla, Lady Dul/iomie, Eilgeworth. Mussoiuie, Dr. Bacon, 

 (Herb. T. Thomson, n. 612). Meerut, Dr. T. Thomson, Herb. »j. 118. 

 Kliasiya, elevation 6,500 feet, and AfFghanistau, Griffith. — This 1 consider 

 a distinct and vvell-niaiked species, approaching A.cuneatum and glaucophyl- 

 lum ; but willi less divided (almost entire, except the serralnres) pin- 

 nules; while the constantly few soii with their peculiar insertion, the colour 

 (always pale <j;reenish-hrown when <\f\), the texture (rather papyraceous than 

 chartaceons, yet firm), the copious, though minutes erratures, where there 

 are no sori, and general aspect, readily distinguish it. All my several spe- 

 cimens are very uniform, and are quite peculiar to the mountain country 

 in the north of India. 



83. A. fragile, Sw. ; fronds tufted ovato-lanceolate tri- 

 quadrijjinnate, pinmdes on short veiy slender petiolules thin 

 inetnbranaceous obovato-cuneate rounded at the apex and 

 serrated in the sterile, 3 or 4-lobed in the fertile ones, very 

 deciduous (on being dried), fertile lobes retuse V)earing a sorus 

 in the sinus, involucres oblong straight, stipes very short 

 (sometimes scarcely any) and as well as the rachis everywhere 

 glabrous ebeneous and glossy, root of tufted wiry fibres 

 clothed with ferruginous wool. Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. iii. p. 1721. 

 Stjn. Fil. 125. Willd. Sp. PL v.;?. 451. A. cuneatum, Kze. 

 PL Exsicc. Poepp. (in Herb, noslr., an Linncea, ix. p. 82 ?) 



Hab. Calcareous rocks, Jamaica, Swartz, Dr. Wright, Poeppig, Otto, 

 Wilson, Purdie. — I have received specimens of Jamaica from five different 

 persons of this singular plant, all exhibiting the same unfortunate character 

 of shedding every leaflet in the act of drying: so that the specimens have 

 come home showing the tufted root above described, a perfect skeleton of 

 wiry stipites (growing in tufts) with the exceedingly slender and equally 

 wiry rachis very much branched, and the pinnules all lying apart from the 

 plant. Not a specimen is fit for the herbarium, nor fit for making a draw- 

 ing. There are ample characters however, for recognizing the species. I 

 know no Adiantum with so peculiar a growth, so tufted, so very short in the 

 stipes, and with such deciduous pinnules, In other respects, these latter, 

 a good deal resemble A. cuneatum of Brazil, and A. venuslum of northern 

 India. 



84. A. excisum, Kze. ; small (a span to a foot high), fronds 

 densely tufted oblong or broad-lanceolate bi-tripinnate, pin- 

 nules very small on short petiolules thin flaccid membrana- 

 ceous blackish-green flabellate 2— 3-lobed (never serrated) 

 few-nerved, lobes bifid bearing a sorus at the bottom of the 

 sinus, involucres reniform large (for the size of the pinnule) 



VOL. II. (i 



