PELLiEA. 137 



Island, Forster, All. Cunninyham, Colenso, D'Urville, J. D. Hooker, Sinclair, etc. 

 Norfolk Island, Kunze. — This handsome species, or, as I fear it ought more cor- 

 rectly to be considered, form of P. falcala, is peculiar to New Zealand, unless 

 Kunze is correct in giving it as a native also of Norfolk Island : and the true 

 P. falcala, gathered only hy Dr. Sinclair in New Zealand, seetns very rare; hut 

 most botanists find intermediate forms between the two. Indeed our growing 

 plants in the temperate Fern-house at Kew, will show, from the same root, 

 fronds with very varied forms of pinnules, subrotund, oval and oblong. Dr. 

 Hooker's and Mr. Colenso's native specimens exhibit the same variations, so that 

 the former (Fl. N. Zeal. vol. ii. p. 25) has expressed his belief that P. rotundi- 

 folia will prove to be a form of P. falcala. 



In this and the two preceding species it is but rare that a true involucre (a 

 narrow, inflexed, membranous edge) is to be seen, or only in the very young state 

 of the fructification, so that the fully formed sori may be Siiid to arise from a 

 quite exposed spreading portion of the pinnae : if indeed that portion bearing the 

 sori were at any time folded in, as in Pteris, it would be an involucre, resembling 

 that of Adiantum. I have never seen it in that state. 



8. P. Doniana; a foot to a foot and a half high, caudex 

 short creeping with copious tufted fibrous roots, frond broad 

 lanceolate pinnated, pinnae few (10-12-18) 2-3 inches long 

 subcoriaceous on short petioles glabrous oblong-ovate gradu- 

 ally acuminate coarsely serrated in the barren portion, the 

 base obtuse or slightly cordate, veins obscure forked free 

 (not visible except the pinna is held between the eye and 

 the light), sori on all the pinnee (of the fertile specimen) very 

 narrow even when mature continued from the base nearly to 

 the serrated point, involucre very narrow slightly intramar- 

 ginal and flattened upon the sorus obscurely transversely 

 wrinkled, stipes and rachis stout strict with a unilateral pu- 

 bescent line, and as well as the petioles and lower ))ortion 

 of the costa intensely ebeneous black glossy. (Tab. CXXV.) 

 — Platyloma Donianum, J. Sm. MS. 



/S. pinnules narrower more coriaceous and opaque glaucous 

 beneath. 



Hab. Tropical Western Africa, Island of St. Thomas, Bight of Biafra, G. Don. 

 Acra, Dr. Vogel. — )3. xVbeokuta, Dr. Irving. — Mr. J. Smith first directed my at- 

 tention to a solitary specimen of this Fern in his Herbarium, on which he had 

 remarked, " Habit of Platyloma paradoxum, but with very narrow sori." Speci- 

 mens in my own Herl)arium are from Acra, and a slight variety is from Abeokuta, 

 sent to me by the late Dr. Irving, who, had his life been spared, would have 

 contributed largely to our knowledge of tropical African botany. Although so 

 closely allied to our Pellcea paradoxa, the narrow lines of fructification bring it 

 near in the structure of the pinnae (not in composition) to the large varieties of 

 P. hastata (see our Tab. CXVI. f. 1) ; but there the veining is very conspicuous, 

 even to the naked eye ; here it is sunk in the substance of the pinna, yet tolerably 

 conspicuous when held between the eye and the light, which is not tlie case with 

 P. paradoxa, nor is it indeed with the var. ;8. of our present plant ; yet I cannot 

 but consider these two as identically one species, and very different from all other 

 known Pellcece. 



