186 PTERIS. 



by streams in mountain districts near Sabra, Schimper, It. Abyss. U. It. 1842 

 (common form), and Schimper, Herb. Mus. Par. 1853, n. 280, larger, 6 feet high, 

 including the stipes, frond glaucous, stipes glossy, as if varnished, dark brown 

 near the base, above bright chestnut-colour on one side, stramineous on the other 

 {Herb. Nostr.). Var. Americana, "St. Vincent (Herb. Hook.) ? Brazil [Link)" fide 

 Ag. — Var. Ascensionis, Island of Ascension, Forsfer, Dr. Curror, Dr. Hooker, 

 (Green Mountain, 1200-1800 feet elev., erect or prostrate), Seemann. — In the pre- 

 sent case, as with many other Ferns, I fear it is only the very southern locality 

 that induced Thunborg and other able botanists to separate Pt.flabellata from Pt. 

 arguta ; there is hardly any other difference than the more membranous and softer 

 texture and elongated sori to distinguish the present one. Pt. Ascennionis owes 

 its dwarf and stunted form to the bare and exposed rocks of the " Insida sterilis- 

 sima Ascensionis," as Swartz calls it. 



45. Pt. (Eupteris) paleacea, Roxb. ; 3-5 feet high, fronds 

 spreading horizontally 1-2 feet and more long subcordate 

 coriaceous very firm and rigid glossy pinnate below tri- 

 subquadripinnate, pinnae close-placed compact, lowest pri- 

 mary pinnae half-cordiform bearing their pinnae and pinnules 

 on the lower or inferior side, superior pinnae and pinnules 

 sessile all lanceolate deeply pinnatifid nearly to the rachis, 

 segments from h an inch to an inch long from a broad base 

 linear-oblong subfalcate obtuse quite entire, veins forked, in- 

 volucres intramarginal copious throughout the whole frond 

 rigid-membranaceous brown not extending to the base nor 

 the apex of the segments, stipes 2-4 feet long stout and as 

 well as the principal rachises beneath very shaggy with co- 

 pious large dark-brown crisped scales which are deciduous 

 leaving rigid prominent prickly tubercles on the pale-brown 

 surface. (Tab. CXXXII. A.)— Roxb. in Beatson's Fl. of 

 St. Helena, ii. 349 ; ejusd. Bat. of St. Helena (not paged). 

 Ag. Sp. Gen. Pterid.p. 33. 



Hab. Summit of Diana's Peak, St. Helena, Menzies, in Herb. Nostr., Roxburgh, 

 and all botanical visitors of that Peak, Cuming, n. 424, Nuttall, Dr. J. D. Hooker, 

 etc. — At tirst sight tliis would appear to be one of the most distinct and remark- 

 able of Ferns, bearing however a certain relationship in general aspect to, and 

 having the ramification of, the " r/uadriaurita" group. Dr. Hooker observes in 

 his notes that " the nearly horizontal fronds are upon stipites that are from 2-4 

 feet high." These stipites are stout, the upper part at least triangular and glossy, 

 peculiarly shaggy in the earlier stages of the plant, with copious, chaffy, dark- 

 brown scales, continuing up among the rachises on the under side, and when 

 these fall off, leaving the stipes quite prickly with short, dark-coloured, hard 

 tubercles. The fronds, very harsh and rigid, turning blackish-brown in drying, 

 especially the upper side ; beneath, the colour in the herbarium is dark olive-green. 

 This strange peculiarity of aspect however would seem to be due to locality, if 

 the late Professor Knuze is correct in his statement in Linncea, vol. .\xiii. p. 

 321, under Pt. flabellata, Th., " Inter sporas a Pt. palencca collectionis Cu- 

 mingiana; depromptas et cassas, ha;c species, in collectione dicti illi adposita, 

 ut in Filicnm cultura fieri solct, enata est." 



46. Pt. (Eupteris) scMbra, Bory ; frond ample pedately 



