PTEHIS. 231 



with lowest pair of pinnules very remote from the rest, suborbicular, auriculiform, 

 adnate and appressed to the main rachis : in other respects not different from the 

 common form. New Granada, near Chue Chue, Purdie ; Antioquia, Prov. Cun- 

 (liiiamarca ; ultimate pinnules two inches long, often quite entire, linear oblong, 

 stipes and rachis very pale straw-colour, apparently a large plant, Jei-vhe. 



Here we have again an example of a widely diffused Fern, receiving a great 

 variety of names, from an oi)inion not a little i)revalent, that species are more 

 local than they really are. It is indeed a variable plant, and yet it has a 

 l)eculiar aspect not dithcult to recognize. In an immature living state the fronds 

 seem to have been thick and fleshy, and they dry of a blackish-green colour; when 

 mature, they are firm and rigid, and in texture (and somewhat in habit) approach 

 the Pteris aquilina or Ornilhopterh group. But the most remarkable feature of 

 the plant is the lietcromorphous venation. Sometimes entire specimens have 

 invariably free venation ; sometimes there will be seen next the costa or cos- 

 tules one or more of the adjacent veins anastomosing. In Dr. Hooker's Sikkim 

 specimens, marked 152 b, the anastomosing of the veins is nearly as constant 

 as in Pt. aurifa, almost indicating a passage from Pt. incisa to that, our next 

 species. Mettenius has very correctly figured the venation of both these. I have 

 selected Thunberg's name {Pt. incisa) as the oldest of the many before me, though 

 it is more generally known under that of Pt. Venpertilionin, because that was ac- 

 companied by the first published figure : and many of the Ferns cannot be correctly 

 determined without figures. — The most remarkable state of this species is our 0. 

 gigantea, which is scandent, and ,'iO feet long. ^Ye shall find a closely allied species 

 {Pt. sinuata, Brackenr., our n. 120) to be subscandent and 18 feet long 1 



119. Pt, (Litobrochia) aurita, Bl. ; caudex long creeping 

 subterraneous, fronds ample submembranaceous distant ovate 

 long-stipitate glaucous beneatb tripinnate, pinnae all sessile 

 subadnate mostly opposite horizontal, pinnules opposite ses- 

 sile lanceolate obtuse more or less deeply lobed and pinna- 

 tifid, segments ovate or oblong (sterile ones subsinuate) or 

 triangular, lowest one often remote and forming auricles on 

 the rachis, superior ones confluent, veins all anastomosing, 

 areoles next the costa and costules the largest and most elon- 

 gated, involucres continuous or interrupted membranaceous 

 entire at the edge, stipes (upper portion) and rachises casta- 

 neous very glossy. — Bl. En. FU. Jav. p. 213. Metten. Fit. 

 Hart. Bot. Lips. p. 59. t. 14 {excellent). Pt. Brunoniana, 

 Emit. Prodr. Ft. Norfolk, p. 12. Ag. Sp. Gen. Pterid. p. 79. 

 Pt. Morrenhoutiana?, Ag. Sp. Gen. Pterid. p. 79 [as to descr. 

 and specim. in Herb. J. Sm.). 



Hab. Java, Blume. Luzon, Cuming, n. 192. Moulmein, LoI)Ij. Borneo, 

 Wallace. Ceylon, Mrs. Gen. Walker. Khasya, East Bengal, Griffith. Norfolk 

 Island, Ferd. Bauer, All. Cunningham, xadX'^ms of watercourses; Dr. Falconer, 

 C. J. Simmons, Esq. Tanna, New Hebrides, Milne. Otaheite (?), Morrenhout. 

 — Dr. Hooker, in his ' Flora Nova; Zelandiie,' unites this with Pt. incisa (Pt. Ves- 

 pertilionis, Labill.), and I am ready to allow that some of his specimens of the 

 latter, from Sikkim, are in favour of such a union. Our Norfolk Island speci- 

 mens are uniformly larger than Pt. incisa, the colour is a darker green even in 

 the mature fronds, and the venation is always anastomosing. It would, too, be 

 diflicult to say whether it is not as much allied to the following {Pt. sinuata, 



