126 CRYPTOGRAMME. 



will be allowed, I think, on all hands, that the excellent Lagasca, hitherto alto- 

 gether overlooked, has claims to that ; his brief but correct character l)eing pub- 

 lished as above stated in 181(j, forty years ago. Probably, if we may infer from 

 the generic name, M. La Llave was the first to discover the plant, wliich appears 

 to be wholly confined to Mexico ; and it certainly docs not associate well with the 

 other species of Allosorus of Presl {Pellaa of Link, and of this work), whatever 

 may have been in the mind of the original constructor of the genus, Bernhardi, 

 in his miserably defined character. It is strange that M. Fee should not have re- 

 cognized in Bauer's figure (Gen. Fil. 1. c), and Mr. J. Smith's description accom- 

 panying it, his own genus Botryogramme (hence he has this plant under two 

 different genera and different names); and still more strange that he should place 

 these far away from each other and from Cryptoyramme, to which, in the fertile 

 portions of the fronds, and in the general nature of the fructification, it has a 

 very close affinity. In its large size and in the form of the pinnules, and in the 

 upper leaflets only being fertile, it is remarkably distinct. If not a scandent 

 plant, it seems to have a rambling habit, with the main and secondary rachis 

 often flexuose ; the barren pinnules have a thickened, narrow, almost cartilagi- 

 nous margin, which is spinuloso-serrate. 



8. Cryptogramme,* Br. (1823.) 



(Hook. Gen. Fil. tab. CXV. B.) Allosorus sp., Bern- 

 hardi, AUosorus and Gymnogranime, Presl. Phorolobus 

 (1827) and Crj'ptogramme, Desv. Phorolobus, Fee. Cryp- 

 togranirae and Allosorus, Mettenius. Pteris, L. MS., Sm. 

 Osmunda, L. 



Sterile and fertile fronds different from the same root. 

 Sort short, or oblong and linear, situated upon and towards 

 the apex of the pinnated veins, occu])ying a greater or lesser 

 length of those veins, in age concealing the whole back of 

 the pinnules. Involucre continuous, formed of the revolute, 

 membranous, dilated margins of the pinnules, which almost 

 meet at the back, concealing the fructification, except in the 

 very mature state. — A solitary species, inhabiting the moist 

 temperate and northern regions both of the neiv and old ivorld, 

 in rocky and mountainous situations. Caudex short thick 

 subrepent, sometimes apparently wanting. Roots fibrous. 

 Stipes stramineous. Fronds small, densely tufted, subcori- 

 aceous : of 2 kinds from the same root : outer ones barren, 

 bi-tripinnate, with someivhat ovate or obovate entire or lobed 

 pinnules, which are crenato-serrate or deeply cut and pinna- 

 tifid ; veins pinnated; — fertile fronds, taller than the sterile, 



* I have ventured to write this word Cryptogramme, rather than Crypto- 

 grnmma ; from ypafifiri, rjy, linea ; and not ypafxfxa, aroi, litera scripta, and which 

 would require a neuter adjunct, never given to this word. 



