CRYPTOGRAMME. 127 



tvith linear or linear-oblong, somewhat siliquiform 

 pinnules, pinnatedly veined. 



Unquestionably the first who separated this from the genus Pteris was Bern- 

 hardi, and he inchided Pt. crispa, L., in his Allosorus, with the very imperfect 

 character " Sporangia cathetogyrata, sessiiia, suhaggregata. Ilyposporangia sub- 

 communia, margine libero subpelkicida ;" but that genus Allosonis has been made 

 a receptacle for Ferns of very varied structure, according to the different views of 

 authors res])ecting tlie Hmits of the genera, especially of those included in this work 

 under the name of Pellcea. Presl retains the plant under consideration in his genus 

 Allosorus, with the majority of the species of which it has little in common, and, 

 strangely enough, he removes the Crypt ogramme acrostichoides of Mr. Brown, 

 and C. Brunoniana, Wall., which we have ventured to consider as not specifically 

 distinct, far away in his genus Gymnogramme. Phorolohus of Desvaux, adopted 

 by Fee, is of more recent date than Mr. Brown's Cryptogramme, unless Desvaux 

 has pubhshed it in some earlier work than I am aware of, viz. the ' Mem. de la 

 Soc. Linneenne ' (if he has he gives no reference to it in this work), and he quotes 

 Mr. Brown's Cryptogramme in the same volume and in the same essay as a dif- 

 ferent genus. His character, moreover, is no improvement on Bernhardi's, and 

 he includes a species from China, one from the West Indies, and a third from 

 Australia ! 



In taking the bold step to unite several supposed species into one, as I have 

 here done, contrary to the judgment of the most distinguished botanists, it is 

 necessary that I oft'er explanation, especially when, in conjunction with my friend 

 Dr. Greville (Icones Filicum), I published as distinct two of the species I propose 

 to abolish, viz. the N. American C. acrostichoides, Br., and the Northern Indian 

 C. Brunoniana*, Wall. I would however call attention to the remark made, 

 firstly, under C. acrostichoides : " Mr. Brown has drawn up the character of the 

 genus so as to include our Pteris crispa, which he nevertheless considers a doubt- 

 ful species of Cryptogramme. To us, however, there appears no generic differ- 

 ence ; and the fertile fronds have the closest similarity in almost every particular 

 except the shorter sori (in C. crispa). In the sterile fronds the pinnules are 

 much broader, and never wedge-shaped in the plant before us (C. acrostichoides)." 

 Under C. Brunoniana we observed, " This, though from so remote a country 

 (Himalaya), is yet almost identical with that of Nootka Sound and subarctic Ame- 

 rica (C acrostichoides) ; the only difference exists in the sterile fronds," &c. If 

 indeed there was a manifest difference in the sori, so as to constitute different 

 genera, between C. crispa and C. acrostichoides and Brunoniana, as Presl, and 

 lately Mettenius, maintain is the case, the first could upon no account be united 

 with the two latter ; but I think I may appeal to the magnified representations 

 of the sori of C. crispa, as given in our ' Genera Filicum ' and in Fee's ' Genera 

 Filicum,' and of those of the two kinds in the ' Icones Filicum,' in support of my 

 views that there is no available distinction ; and I have copious specimens before 

 me at this moment of our British species (C crispa), in proof that, as in C. acro- 

 stichoides, these sori occupy so much of the veins, and are " ita approximati, ut 

 discus totus pinnulse explanatae capsulis maturis tectus est, et in hoc stadio filix 

 species Grammitidis vel Acrostichi quasi evadit," Br. Our specimens, gathered 

 in an advanced state in Galloway, Scotland, have the involucres quite spi-eading, 

 and exposing the sori occupying nearly the whole veins. 



When an old plant is found in a very distant part of the world from its pre- 

 viously known locality, one is apt to look upon it as something new ; and, as is 



* Cryptogramme Jamesoni, Hook, and Grev., noticed under this species in Ic. 

 Fil., is Cheilanthes marginata, H.B.K. (and of this vol., p. 105), though omitted 

 in the synonyms of that plant. 



