LONCHITIS. 57 



sessile pinnatifid at the apex, pinnules sessile broad-lanceo- 

 late acuminate sinuato-pinnatifid much reticulated, the lobes 

 entire or sinuato-lobatc, the sinuses soriferous, stipes and ra- 

 chis everywhere densely hairy. — " Willd. Herhr Kaulf. En. 

 FU. p. 195. Prcd, Tent. Pterid. p. ^63, t. 6, /". 29, (piihes- 

 cence omitted). Hook. Gen. FU. t. 68, A. L. hirsuta, Bory, 

 Voy. i. p. 321, (name only). Wall. Cat. n. 2190. Sw. Syn. 

 Filp. 93, (in part). Schick. FU. p. 81 (in part), tab. 2, 

 not tab. 80, (not Linn.) 



Hab. Mauritius, Bori/, Commersnn (in Jlrrb. nnnlr.), Sieber, Wallich, 

 Telfair, and others. — This species has been much misunderstood and mixed 

 up with others. I have copious specimens from Mauritius, where it is abun- 

 dant in moist woods, and to which island I believe it is peculiar. Bory, 

 who perhaps fust noticed it, considered it to be the L. hirsuta of LinnjEus, a 

 West Indian plant, for which the authority is Plumier ; " Fil. villosa, pin- 

 nis quercinis," tab. 20; but that has free, not anastomosing, veins. That 

 author (Bory) expressly gives it as a native of Mauritius, for when speaking 

 of his L. fflabra of Bourbon, he says, " Je remarquai (in Bourbon) un beau 

 Lonchite dont les feuilles ont une couleur obscure, et qui je crois different 

 du Lonchite velu (i. hirsuta, L.) si comniun a I'lsle de France." Yet 

 Swartz, on Bovy's authority, evidently I think by mistake, gives " Bour- 

 bon " as the country of this. Willdenow rightly confines the L. hirsuta, L. 

 to the West Indies, whence we have specimens showing the venation of 

 true Ptcris. Kaulfuss first took up the Mauritius species with the MS. 

 name from Willdenow's own herbarium. — The fronds are dingy brown 

 when dry. 



4. L. Natalensis, Hook. ; fronds ample bipinnate mode- 

 rately hirsute on both sides with pale-coloured hairs, pinnas 

 more or less petiolate the upper half pinnatifid, pinnules iew 

 sessile broad-lanceolate acuminate much reticulated nearly 

 entire or moderately lobed in the lower half, lobes rounded 

 entire short, the sinuses and entire margins soriferous, sori 

 small, stipes and rachis downy. (Tab. LXXXIX. B.) — L. 

 glabra, Pappe, MS. in Herb. Hook. — (not Bory). 



Hab. Shady places at Port Natal, South Africa : communicated by 

 Dr. Pappc, 1845. — I find nothing like this among my copious specimens 

 of L. jmhcscens from Mauritius. The size is about the same, but the fronds 

 are less pubescent and less densely hairy, drying of a full green colour; the 

 pinnae or primary divisions are stalked, and a great portion of them, the 

 upper half, are pinnatifid, the lobes there and the pinna; below more entire, 

 the lobes, when lobed at all, short and never again siuuated or lobcd, and 

 the sori are smaller, frequently appearing where there is no perceptible si- 

 nus: — the rachis and stipes are not densely hairy with patent fulvous hairs, 

 as in L. pubescens, but simply downy. 



5. L. glabra, Bory ; fronds (2 feet long) bipinnate mem- 

 branaceous with scattered fulvous hairs on the sti]ies rachis 

 midrib and veins on both sides, pinna) sessile oblong-ovate 



VOL. II. I 



