PTERIS. 173 



to the base nor to the apex, involucre membranaceous close- 

 pressed entire, veins all simply pinnated elevated, veinlets 

 simple rarely forked each terminating in the seta, stipes and 

 very slender and mostly winged rachises fulvous-brown glossy 

 naked. (Tab. CXXVIII. A.)— Pteris gracihs. Fee, Geti. Fil. 

 p. 128 {7ioi Michaux, v. supra, p. 138). An Pteris spinulosa, 

 Raddi, Fil. Bras. t. " 70 bis," not " 70 " ? 



Hab. Brazil, Claunen {Fee) : Rio, Forbes. S. Brazil, Tweedie. — I have long 

 known this in my herbarium, and considered it as a new species of Pteris, al- 

 though marked by the learned Agardli as Pteris (Litobrochia) lepfophylla, Sw. 

 {Pf. spinulosa, Raddi). Certainly, except in the rather smaller size of the pin- 

 nules, it seems to be identical with the second figure of Raddi's Pt. spinulosa (tab. 

 "70 bis," not tab. "70"); and, as M. Fee justly remarks of his Pt. gracilis, 

 " Litobrochia leptophyllce affinis, nervillis vero Uberis, fronde magis dissecta, seg- 

 mentis angustioribus, dentibus apice setaceis " (so they are also in spinulosa). The 

 veins are indeed all free. Still I am not sure that tliis character, albeit con- 

 sidered generic, will justify the separation even specifically. In all the very nar- 

 rowed segments of true Pt. leptophylla or spinulosa, the veinlets are free, and in 

 proportion as they are broader and more widely decurrent, they anastomose. 

 More copious specimens, should we be so fortunate as to procure them, can only 

 settle the question satisfactorily. Pteris gracilis, of Michaux, being now univer. 

 sally referred either to Allosorus or Pcllcea, Nob., sets that name free to be here 

 retained. 



29. Pt. (Eupteris) irregularis, Kaulf. ; 2-4 feet high, cau- 

 dex?, frond 1-2 feet and more long ample ovate submembra- 

 naceous tri-subquadripinnate, pinnse alternate all of them 

 except the lower primary pinnee which are petiolate decur- 

 rent so as to form a very broad wing on all the rachises, wings 

 of the main rachis contracted where they join the next 

 pinna below so as to form a repand margin, ultimate pinna 

 oblong-lanceolate a little falcate sometimes linear-lanceolate 

 and much acuminate, the sterile apices slightly serrated, all 

 the margins soriferous, the sori extending generally even to 

 the apices, involucres narrow submarginal membranaceous, 

 veinlets mostly forked, stipes nearly as thick as one's little 

 finger triangular castaneous chaffy with subulate scales at the 

 base, rachises and costa stout prominent beneath glossy and 

 hrow'xx.— Kaulf. Enum. Fil p. 189. Ag. Pterid. p. 18. Pt. 

 alata. Gaud, in Freijc. Voy. Bot. p. 391. t. 19 [excellent). 

 Hook, et Am. in Bot. of Beech. Voy. p. I07. Pt. elongata, 

 Nutt. MSS. [var. with long tapering pinnules) . 



Hab. Sandwich Isles, and apparently confined to that group of islands. Our 

 specimens are all derived from Oabu, Chaniisso, Gaudichaud, Douglas, n. 31, 

 Beechey, Nuttall, Seemann, n. 2238, Brackenridge. — One of the most distinct 

 and remarkable of the genus, resembling a multipinnatifid leaf of some coarse 

 umbelliferous ])]ant, varying much in tlie length and in the breadth of the pinnae, 

 and in the leafy or winged rachises, whence probably Kaulfuss's name of irregn- 

 VOL. II. 2 A 



