ONYCHIUM. 121 



1. O. aiiratnnf, Kaulf. ; roots of densely tufted fibres, sti- 

 pites caBspitose a span to a foot and more long hispid with 

 a few narrow scales only at the base and as well as the ra- 

 chises everywhere pale brown or straw-colour glabrous and 

 glosvsy, frond a span to a foot or a foot and a half long ovato- 

 lanceolate acuminate submembranaceous but firm and glossy 

 very compound four times or more pinnatisected (primary and 

 secondary divisions pinnated) segments all narrow linear sub- 

 cuneate short (in the sterile portions) ultimate ones acute 

 entire or inciso-denlate, segments all pointing upwards 1- 

 nerved, fertile segments elongated siliquiforra especially the 

 terminal ones and mucronate, sori linear-elongated occupying 

 the whole back of the fertile segments, involucres golden 

 colour meeting at their edges. Kaulf. Enum. Fil. p. 144. 

 Lomaria aurea. Wall. Cat. n. 38, L. caruifolia, Wall. Cat. 

 n. o9. L, decomposita, Dow, Prodr. Fl. Nep. p. 14. Pteris 

 chrysocarpa, Hook, et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 107. Pteris siliculo- 

 sa, Desv. Allosorus auratus, Pred. 



Hab. East Indies and Malay Islands. Manilla, Chamisso. Luzon, Cu- 

 7mn(j,n.'SS; Thos. Lobb, n. 452. Java, (ex Heil). Miquel. n. 21). Bootan, 

 Griffith, Booth. Nepal, Kamaon (probably its western limits), Hamilton, 

 Wallich. Khasya, Simons, n. 246 ; J. D. Hooker, and Dr. T. Thomson. — 

 Our figure in ' Icones Filicum,' above quoted, does ample justice to this plant 

 as far as an entirely fructified specimen is concerned, and it is certainly one of 

 the most beautiful of Ferns, whether in that or in the sterile slate (of which 

 latter we now possess copious specimens), when the fronds have quite a diffe- 

 rent appearance, being everywhere multifidly cut into copious, crowded, nar- 

 row, short and linear or somewhat cuneated segments, tapering at the base, 

 and resembling the very compound leaf of some umbelliferous plant (whence 

 Dr. Wallich's name caruifolia). Other specimens again are partly (above) 

 fertile after the manner of Osmunda regalis or Allosorus (Ceratodaclylis, J. 

 Sm.) KaruinsHi of Kunze, and apparently by a transformation of the laci- 

 nis of the pinnae and pinnules, which become larger, more elongated, entire 

 and mucronated, often an inch long, and so resembling the pods of some 

 Arabis as to suggest to Desvaux the specific name of ^^ siliculosa." The 

 under side of these is a beautiful golden colour, but less deep in our speci- 

 mens from Khasya and the Malay Islands, in consequence, probably as Mr. 

 J. Smith suggests, of the nioister climate. 



I quote Don's Lomaria decomposita with doubt, because he not only does 

 not notice the remarkable colour of the fructifications, but because he dis- 

 tinguishes his Leptostegia Incida gen crically from tins plant, whereasno bo- 

 tanist could see these two species without pronouncing them to be identical 

 as to Genus. The usual colour of the fronds, especially the sterile fronds, 

 of our plant, is to be pale light yellow-green (when dry), but Vve have spe- 

 cimens from Assam with very dark foliage and with narrower and more 

 elongated segments. 



2. O. luciduni, Spreng. ; caudex creeping ? stipites six 



