CRVPTOGRAMME. 129 



Notwithstanding that our learned friend, Mr. Brown, framed his character of 

 Cry])togramme with a view to inchide our C. crispa, " qua; dubia quidera species, 

 ob sores abbreviates potius subrotundos quam lineares," vie are disposed to con- 

 sider it by no means generically distinct, and not even specifically so, either from 

 that gentleman's C. acrostichoides, or from the C. Brunoniana of Dr. Wallich. It 

 is true that the chief distinction between the plant now under consideration and 

 the two latter is, that C. crispa has often the fertile pinnules when mature nar- 

 rower, with smaller or shorter sori and fewer sporangia, but that is very variable in 

 different specimens, and tliese sori do not extend and become so completely con- 

 fluent over the back of the pinnules as generally to force back the involucres, and 

 thus to present a broader surface of pinnule, as is more or less common to the 

 other two kinds; but this is a character not unlikely to depend on soil and cli- 

 mate, and which, in other Ferns, would not be considered of specific, much less 

 of generic value. Another peculiarity in this state of C. crispa is, that its habit 

 is more slender than the continental forms, though even this is by no means uni- 

 versal ; some of our specimens are very stout and firm. 



b. forma Indica ; erect stout somewhat rigid, pinnules of 

 the sterile fronds varying as in the European form, those of 

 the mature fertile fronds rjither broad-oblong with the mar- 

 gins (or involucres) spread open (not permanently revolute). 

 — Cryptogramme Brunoniana, Wall. Cat. n. 396. Hook, et 

 Grev. Ic. Fit. t. 158. Mettenius. Gymnogramme Bruno- 

 niana, Presl, Tent. Pterid.p. 219. Phorolobus Brunonianus, 

 Fee, Gen. Fit. p. 131. 



Hab. N. India. On the higher alps of Kamoun, Blinkworth {Wallich), Messrs. 

 Strachey and Winterbottom, elev. 12,000 feet ; Baiti, N. W." Thibet, Shayak 

 Valley, elev. 9000, Dr. Thomson. Above Simla, Col. Bates. Choor, N. India, 

 Mr. Edgeworth. Interior of Sikkim-Hiraalaya, elev. 1 1-13,000 feet, Hooker and 

 Thomson. 



I place this variety next to the European form, because, in the aggregate of 

 specimens before me, the sterile fronds are exactly as in our European plant, that 

 is, of two kinds, the one kind with the obovate segments deeply divided, serrated, 

 single-nerved, the other with the pinnules elliptical, deeply serrated and pin- 

 natedly veined, whereas the fertile pinnules more resemble those of the following 



Lapland. 3. " Homopteris, Rupr. ; frondes omnes consimiles, pinnae superiores 

 fertiles, inferiores plerumque steriles." To this is referred A. minutus, Turcz. et 

 Trautv. (Pteris Stelleri, Gmel, Pteris minuta, Turcz. in Cat. Baik.), native of 

 Siberia. With regard to the supposed species from Kadiak (Kadjak) and from 

 Sitcha, I can only say that our specimens from these very countries are identical 

 with our European form. The true Allosorus or Cryptogramme crispa will not 

 belong to his second section, if the character " cujus (pinnule) niargo semper in- 

 volutus" is of any importance, as I have shown above. In regard to his third 

 section, it is evident that its main or principal character depends upon the 

 " frondes omnes consimiles, pinnre superiores fertiles," &c. ; but I have Spanish 

 specimens of Cr. crispa with the ujjjjcr half of the pinnules of the frond fertile, 

 and the lower sterile, and Scotch ones with the lower half fertile and the upper 

 half sterile. It is only by means of an extensive series of specimens from various 

 localities that we can show that these tritliug difierences, made so much of by 

 those who see specific distinctions in every deviation from the normal form of a 

 plant, can he duly appreciated. 



