PELLiEA. 135 



lobed apex, which lobes are the receptacles of the capsules, and are more or less 

 confluent with the marginal line or nerve, and it is these receptacles which occa- 

 sion the black dots at the edges of the frond beneath. In age tiic sori diverge 

 so as to be almost confluent, but they are not continuous on the marginal nerve 

 as in Pleris ; on the other hand neither arc they decurrent on the veinlets ; so that 

 it may be considered a dubious point wliether this should be considered a Pcllcea 

 or P/eris. 



** Fronds pinnate ; pinna entire. 



5. P. j)orudoxa; pinnated, pinnae (9-24 or 25) sliortly 

 petiolated (upper ones sessile) large cordato-oblong acute or 

 obtuse glabrous, veins especially beneath obsolete, sori (ma- 

 ture) very broad, involucre very narrow never covering the 

 mature sori, stipes elongated, rachis paleaceo-villous at length 

 glabrous. (Tab. CXI. A.) — Adiantuni paradoxum, Br. Prodr. 

 p. 155. AUosorus paradoxus, Kze. Platyloma Brownii, /. 

 Sm. in Hook. Gen. Fil. sub tab. 115 A. (name only, the figure 

 is that of Pella3a falcata) ; and in Hook. Journ. of Bot. iv. p. 

 160. Pelleea cordata. Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 130. Pteris cordata, 

 Sieb. Fl. mixta, n. 269. Pteris latizona. All. Cunn. MSS. 



Hab. N. S. Wales, P. Jackson, Brown, Siefjer. Brisbane River, in dry shady 

 woods, All. Cunningham, Dr. F. Mueller (fronds glaucous beneath). — Mr. Brown, 

 probably considering the receptacular veins to extend into the involucre as in 

 Adiantum (though to me the real involucre appears to be exterior to these, the 

 portion bearing the sori never being folded in), was induced to refer this fine 

 plant to that genus, and to give it the name of A. paradoxum ; for it has 

 all the habit of his Pterin falcata, which he places in the Adiantoid section of 

 Pteris. But a carcfid examination of the sori in the latter plant shows that they 

 have the same origin, and are of precisely the same nature as in his Adiantum 

 paradoTum. Mr. J. Smith has consequently, and with much propriety, placed 

 them next each other, in his genus Platyloma, with some other pteridoid plants 

 taken mainly from AUosorus of Presl. This genus however proves identical with 

 the older one of Pellcca, Link, is confirmed by Fee, and is, I think, and as I have 

 already observed, to be preferred to AUosorus. Our remarks made under the 

 next species (P. falcata), will tend to prove that this plant has a greater affinity 

 with the P. falcata than either Mr. Brown or Mr. J. Smith suspected. P. para- 

 dora is a foot to a foot and a half long, the rachis generally a little flexuose, 

 stout. Pinna; from an inch and a half to three inches long, and from half an 

 inch to full an inch wide. The mature sori form a very broad, continuous band 

 along the spreading portion of the piiniule, and are never, that I can find, covered 

 by the involucre. The Pelltea cordata of M. Fee, 1. c, founded on the 'Flora 

 Mixta' of Sieber, n. 2G9, from N. S. Wales (not "from the Cape"), is precisely 

 the Pvlhea paradora. 



6. P. falcata, Fee ; caudex creeping, frond linear-oblong 

 pinnate, pinnte (26-40 or 50) on very short petioles (the 

 upper ones sessile) oblong-lanceolate generally subfalcate 

 truncate or subcordate at the base acute and often mucronate 

 at the point glabrous or sometimes ferrugineo-hirsute the 

 hairs frequently arising from little bulbs or tubercles, veins 



