PELI.^A. 139 



more or less ferruginco- pilose (a span to a foot-and-a-half 

 and more tall), caudcx short thick nodose scaly, fronds laxly 

 tufted coriaceous ovato-lanceolate jiinnate or below hipinnate, 

 pinnpc suhopposite petiolatc, pinnules .3-7 (terminal one the 

 longest) oblong or lincar-ol)long obtuse rarely with a blunt 

 opaque niucro the ])ase truncate or subcordate sometimes 

 hastate or auriculatc sterile ones denticulate, veins indistinct, 

 sori broad continuous, involucre formed of the incurved mar- 

 gin of the pinnule the edge only submembranaceous and cre- 

 nulate, stipes and rachis very l)lack glossy ebeneous. — Link, 

 Fil. Hort. Berol. p. 59. Fee, Gen. Fil. Pteris atro-purpurea, 

 Linn. Sp. PL p. 15.34. Mic/i. Am. 'u. p. 261. Siv. Si/n. Fil. 

 p. 106. Schknhr, Fil. 93. t. 101. HV/d. Sp. PL v. p. 375. 

 Allosorus atro-purpureus, K::e. PresL Platyloma, J. Sm. 



/S. natia. Pteris gracilis ? nana, Richardson in FrankL Voy. 

 App. Bot.p. 39 {not Mich.). 



Ilab. N. America ; probably generally through the United States from Texas 

 {Drummond), through the AU'eghanies to Massachusetts, through Canada to the 

 " woody country of subarctic America, between N. lat. 54° and 04°, " when it be- 

 comes very dwarf, not an inch high (liicftard.son), and westward to tlie limestone 

 rocks of the Sashatchawan, Douglas ami Dnunmond. — Very variable in size, from 

 the dwarf form just mentioned to 2 feet in height, yet departing but little from the 

 normal character here described. Fertile pinnules from % to 1 inch long ; ter- 

 miiial ones often 2 inches and more long; sterile ones ^ an inch broad. Stipes 

 often equal in length to the frond. 



11. P. d^lra; a span to a foot high, frond oblong pin- 

 nate or below bipinnate, pinnaj opposite, pinnules opposite 

 and alternate glabrous sessile or scar<;ely petiolated erecto- 

 patent rigid entire linear-elongate or obtuse subcordate or 

 with a sinus at the base, involucres narrow membranaceous 

 continuous quite round the apex, stipes about as long as the 

 frond ebeneous naked, rachis ebeneous rough with short ful- 

 vous chaffy curled hairs. (Tab. CXIII. A.) — Allosorus durus, 

 PresL Pteris dura, Bory in Willd. Sp. PL \. p. 376. Bojer, 

 Hort. Maurit. p. 400. Pteris angusta, Bory in Willd. Sp. PL 

 \.p. 388. 



Hab. Mauritius and Madagascar, Bojer. — I received two specimens of this very 

 distinct plant from the late Professor Uojcr; the one simply pinnate, marked 

 " P/eris dura, Bory ;" the other, " P/erw anf/mtn, liojer," with all the lower 

 pinnae again pinnated, but I think evidently one and the same species. Willde- 

 now compares it with the Pteris (Pellaea) a'trojjitrpiirea. It is indeed similar in 

 texture, size, and somewhat in ramification ; but the great length of the narrow 

 pinnules will distinguish this form from that and all others of this genus. The 

 frond is 5 inches to a span long; pinnules 1 J to 2 inches long, exactly linear and 

 of the same width throughout ; the rather narrow membranous involucre is con- 



