216 PTERIS. 



Hab. Hispaniola, Swart z ; Cuba, C. Wright,* 1857, n. 270. Brazil, about 

 Rio, Raddi, Forbes, Armstrong, Boog, Milne, and Macgillivray. — " Quasi praece- 

 dentis {Pt. Brasiliensis, Rad.) status junior ; ab auctoribus cum ea quoque fre- 

 quenter confusa vel judicata fuit," is the remark of Agardh. Dr. Greville and 

 myself had expressed an opinion that these two supposed species were identical, 

 and I confess to the difficulty in determining some of the many varieties of 

 Brasiliensis. The winged racliis here and less compound and narrower pinnae 

 are perhaps the best characters. It is remarkable, however, that Pt. denficidata, 

 which is much the rarer of the two in Brazil, and, I believe, only found about 

 Rio, should be detected, as it now^ has been, in two of the West Indian islands, 

 and even first discovered in one where Pt. Brasiliensis has never been 

 known to exist. 



93. Pt. (Litobrochia) leptophylla, Sw. ; caudex small 

 knotted sub-tuberiform, fronds 4-5 inches to a span long 

 pale-green thin-membranaceous pellucid cordate or deltoid 

 subpedate long-stipitate fascicled bipinnate tripinnate below, 

 ultimate pinniB pinnatifid, pinnules and segments all linear 

 subacuminate decurrent so as to form winged rachises except 

 at the bases of the pinnules slightly falcate, sterile ones 

 (which are lanceolato-acuminated) and apices of the fertile 

 ones setosely serrate, veins forming a single series of large 

 areoles next the costa the rest free, in the narrow pinnules 

 and segments all free, stipites slender longer than the fronds 

 greenish-brown or stramineous. — Sw. in Act. Holm. 1817. 

 p. 70. Ag. Sp. Gen. Pterid. p. 57- Presl, Tent. Pterid.p. 145. 

 Pt. spinulosa, Raddi, Syn. Fil. Bras. p. 70 and 70 bis. Chei-. 

 lanthes spinulosa, Link, Hort. Berol. 



Hab. Brazil, whence I have received many specimens from the neighbourhood 

 of Rio, Raddi, Lady Calcott, Boog, Forbes, Macgillivray and Milne, Gardner, 

 n. 32, Sellow (probably from South Brazil). — This evidently belongs to the same 

 group or set with Pt. Brasiliensis and denticulata, exhibiting the setiferous serra- 

 tures, and it cannot naturally be separated from them ; yet in one and the same 

 specimen even we find the venation of a Campteria, and more copiously that of 

 true Pteris, and none of real Litobrochia: and I have already intimated my 

 opinion, p. 173 of this Volume, that Pteris gracilis of Fee, (see our figure, Tab. 

 CXXVIII. A.) is probably merely the state of this plant with all free veins. In 

 short, it is rare in Pt. leptophylla to find any anastomosing veins save in the 

 broader sterile pinnules. As in many other Ferns, it is difficult to say whether 

 the divisions of this species should be considered pinnate (with decurrent and 

 confluent pinnules) or pinnatifid : the two characters are combined, and only the 

 lower portions of the primary divisions are strictly pinnate (destitute of de- 

 current wing or margin). 



94. Pt. (Litobrochia) gigantea, Willd. ; fronds ample bi- 



* In the same beautiful collection, " Plants Cubenses Wrightianae," are speci- 

 mens of Pt. (Eupteris) gracilis. Fee, previously only known as a native of Brazil, 

 which came too late to be recorded under that species at p. 173 of this Volume. 

 It is n. 568 of the above collection. 



