234 PTERIS. 



membranaceous trifoliolate, lower pinnules opposite broad- 

 oblong acuminate obliquely truncate at the base and nearly- 

 sessile, intermediate one very large long-petiolate subcordate 

 trifid, its lateral segments oblong acuminated, interme- 

 diate one very large ovate acuminated sinuato-lobate, sori 

 narrow continuous even to the apices. — H.B.K. Nov. Gen. et 

 Sp. Am. i. p. 14. Willd. Sp. PI. p. 3/0. Kce., in Schkh. Fil. 

 Suppl. ii. p. 43. t. 118. Amphiblestra latifolia, Fresl, Tent. 

 Pterid. p. 150. t. 6. /. 1. Hook. Gen. Fil. Suppl. t. 120 C. 

 Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 140. t. II B. f. 1, 4, 8. 



Hab. Venezuela : Quebrado del Cuchivano, near Cumanacoa, H.B.K. : moun- 

 tains of Caripe, elev. 3000 feet, Funck, n. 201. — In the venation of the frond 

 this section (Genus Amphiblestra, Presl) corresponds with the section (or Genus) 

 Gymnopteris in Acrostichece, Drynaria in PoIypodiecB, etc. The only species 

 known to us, is a very fine one, and apparently of rare occurrence. Presl has 

 indeed an Amphiblestral longifolia. Tent. Pterid. p. 157, but a name only, for 

 I am not aware that it is anywhere described. 



[Obs. Of the Genus P/eris, as above considered, very many other supposed species 

 might have been enumerated, but so imperfectly described that it would only 

 have encumbered our pages with useless names, of the very aihnities of which 

 species we are wholly ignorant. We fear that more than enough of dubious 

 species are already recorded, nor are we over-confident as to the permanency of 

 some of our own. But we have endeavoured, by our diagnoses and remarks, 

 and, as much as our work would admit, by figures, to render them intelligible to 

 the student.] 



11. Ceratopteris, Brongn. 



Ceratopteris, " Br'otign. Bullet. Soc. Philom. p. 184, cuin ic. 

 (1821)." (Hook. Gex. Fil. TAB. XII.) Teleozoma, i?r. ^o^. 

 App. to Frankl. first Journey to the Polar Sea (1823), p. 54. 

 EUobocarpus,* Kuulf. " Entw. d. Fahrenkr." Furcaria, Desv. 

 (1827). Acrostichum, Linn. Pteris, Sw. Willd. Beauv. 

 Parkeria (Hook. Gen. Fil. (1825) tab. L.) 



* I have been at some pains to ascertain which of the above generic names 

 has the right of priority, and should have determined unhesitatingly in favour 

 of Ceratopteris, Bron[;:n., were it not that Gaudichaud (Voy. de I'Uranie, 

 Bot. p. .393) dates the jjublication of Ellotjocarpus, Kaulf., as 1819, though the 

 only authority he gives for the name is Kaulf. Enum. Fil. p. 147, a work which 

 bears date " 1824," nor do I, in other writers, find reference to it under any 

 })ri(>r date. It is true that Kaulfuss himself, in his Enumeratio Fil., quotes 

 " KUobocarpus, Kaulf. Entw. d. Fahrenkr. f. 7, 8, 9," but I can find no pu!)li- 

 cation with that exact title. I possess, indeed, from the author, a volume 

 entitled ' Das Wesen der Farrenkrauter, etc. — und mit einer Darstellung der Ent- 

 wickelung der Pteris serrulata,' etc., \on Dr. G. N. Kaulfuss; and in the accom- 

 panying plate are "ff. 7. 8, 9, EUobocarpus oleraceus, Kaulf.," but this bears 

 date 1827. I am therefore still bound, under correction, to consider Cerato- 

 pteris as the oldest name. 



