PRLLiliA. 133 



Hab. Brazil; about Rio, Raddi and others. S. Brazil, Selknr. Santa Marta, 

 Columbia, Purdie. Venezuela, near Tovar, Fendler {PL Vencz. n. 92). Mada- 

 gascar and Mauritius, Bojcr. Cape of Good Hope, Menzics, Drpt/e. Nilghiri, E. 

 Indies, Ileyne {Tf'aUich) , Maclror, Gideon Thomson, Exq. Luzon, Cuming. Mar- 

 quesas, Langsdorff. Volcano, Owhyliee, Macrae. Fiji Islands, and Island of 

 Aneiteum, Milne {Voyage of If. M.S. Herald). Galapagos, Douglas. — It is very 

 excusable in any one who at a first glance shall refer this plant to some of the 

 common and more compound forms of Pteris (Litobrochia or Doryopteris of au- 

 thors) pedata, or still more in any one who shall unite with it our Pleris Eeechey- 

 ana of this volume, and the more so as the opacity of the fronds renders it very 

 difficult to distinguish the nature of the sunken venation, — reticulated in Pt. 

 pedafa and Beccheyana, forked and free in our plant. The frond is, indeed, gene- 

 rally more compound, and of a somewhat thinner substance. 



3. P. hniariacea ; a foot and more high, root ceespitose, 

 fronds cordate or cordato-ovate coriaceous very opaque^ ste- 

 rile ones extremely varia1)le ):)innatifidly 3- or 5-lobed more 

 or less divided into secondary lobes which are oblong or ob- 

 ovato-rotundate, fertile ones similarly divided, the lobes or 

 segments linear-elongated remote with broad and very ob- 

 tuse sinuses, sori in age broad, stipites elongated (especially 

 of the fertile fronds) black-ebeneous deciduously hairy below, 

 fertile ones much longer than the sterile ones. 



a. septemJoba ; sterile fronds about 7-lobed, lobes oblong, 

 subsimple. — Pteris lomariacea, Kze. in Herb. Monac. et Vin~ 

 dob. [fide Klotzsch). Doryopteris lomariacea, Kl. in Linncea, 

 XX. p. 343. Pteris septemloba, KL in Herb. Berol. 



b. colnmbina ; sterile fronds broad-cordate sub-5-lobed, 

 lobes closely pinnatifid rotundate or obovate short. — Pellcea 

 columbina, Hook. MS. in Herb. Nostr. (Tab. CXII. A.) 



c. diyifrlo-palmata ; larger and very coriaceous, sterile 

 frond bi-oad-palmate 7-lobed, lobes acute, fertile ones deeply 

 digitate with seven flabellate elongated (4 inches long) entire 

 and two lesser deflected lobes. 



Hab. a. British Guiana, Rich. Schomburgk, n. 1197 {Klotzsch in Ilerh. Nostr.). 

 Old Walls, Infecionado, Diamond district, Brazil, Gardner, n. 5297. — b. Summit 

 of the Organ Mountains, Brazil, Gardner, n. 5930. — c. Rocky, elevated places in 

 the same locality with a. Diamond district, Brazil, Gardner, n. 5298. — In the 

 Pteris-group of Ferns we have, among the pedal e forms, a set with free venation, 

 here (correctly or not) ranked with Pellcea (Allosorus of most authors) ; and a 

 set with reticulated or anastomosing venation, ranked by some in Litobrochia, by 

 others constituting the genus Doryopteris ; each possesses two species so exactly 

 similar, so completely the analogues of one another, that but for the difference in 

 the venation, I do not see how they are to be distinguished : this happily puts an 

 cud to all doubt respecting specific identity. Pteris (or Doryopteris) Beecheyana, 

 Nobis, is Pellcea geraniifolia with reticulated veins, as our present plant Pelhea 

 lomariacea is Pleris (or Doryopteris) pedata with free veins. Our excellent 

 friend Dr. Klotzsch has assuredly consulted the natural affinity, in uniting, as he 

 has done (in Linnaea, v. xx. p. .342), these two groups of pedate Pteridece into 

 VOL. 11. T 



