12 LOMARIA. 



foot long lanceolate acuminate mnch attenuated at the base 

 pinnatifid almost to the rachis, segments ai)proximate (with 

 a very narrow sinus) from a broad base ovato-oblong sub- 

 falcate less than an inch long obtuse the lower ones dwarf 

 forming only very shallow lobes (the segment of a circle) as 

 it were upon the stipes, fertile fronds larger and stouter in 

 every respect than the sterile and upon a stout stipes almost 

 a span long, coriaceous pinnate broad-lanceolate acuminated 

 slightly attenuated at the base a foot long (in our specimen), 

 pinnae numerous but remote sessile the longest of them 

 2 inches \\ line wide all of them sessile and in the upper 

 half so decurrent at the inferior and superior base that the 

 frond is there almost pinnatifid whilst the inferior ones 

 though decurrent are free, involucres membranaceous pale 

 brown transversely wrinkled minutely denticulate. — Bory in 

 Duperreifs Voi/. Bot. j). 27-3. Collu, PL Chil. ii. n. 139. Kse. 

 in Linncea, ix. p. 57. Gay, Fl. Chil. \'i. p. 481. L. decurrens, 

 Kze. MSS. {Kze.). Blechnum lomarioides, Mett. Fil. Lechl. 

 p. 14. Sturm, En. Fil. Chil. p. 25. 



Hal). Chili; Conception, D'Urville, Gay; Talcahuaiio, Pceppir/, PI. Chil. n. 

 139; Province of Valdivia, Philippi, PL Cliil. n. 211; De Bibra, Lechler, PL 

 ChiL H. 511. Juan Fernandez, Gat/. — No figure exists of this plant, and I must 

 confess that until I very recently received an authentic specimen in Lechler's 

 beautiful collections of Chilian plants, I was disposed, from the imperfect and 

 too brief descriptions, to refer it to L. alpina, a common species in S. Chili. 

 Now my difficulty is to distinguish it from some states of L. lanceolata, nes-er 

 yet considered a Chilian species. Bory, the author of L. blechnoides, says very 

 justly, " Les frondes ont cela de remarquable dans les steriles, que les pinnules 

 {seyments) infrrieures sont plus ctendues en hauteur qu'en longueur, tandis que 

 le contraire a lieu dans les supe'rieures." Now this same structure, which no 

 doubt suggested the name decurrens to Kunze, exists in a remarkable degree in 

 many specimens of L. lanceolata, and in some of its allies. If L. blechnoides is 

 deserving of being kept distinct from L. lanceolata, I think the characters must 

 be looked for in the fertile frond, which in Lechler's solitary but very fine 

 specimen in my possession, is much larger there and longer (more than twice 

 the height) than the sterile specimens, giving a peculiar character to this rather 

 dwarf plant, analogous to what we see in our Blechnum ^lorco/e (LomariaSpicant), 

 and suggesting no doubt the name blechnoides. The pinna; are here two inches 

 long, and wide in proportion, and most of them very decurrent at the base. Still 

 it remains to be seen if those characters are permanent : — the smaller and slen- 

 derer fertile fronds of L. lanceolata are very constant in my specimens. From 

 L. alpina, L. blechnoides is abundantly distinct in the ditrerent nature of the 

 caudices, in the long slender stipites of the former, the narrower, linear sterile 

 fronds, and close-placed, oblong, short fertile pinnic. 



15. L. vidcanica, Bl. ; caudex erect or declined sometimes 

 four or five inches or more long thick (one inch in diam.) 

 clothed with the remains of old stipites and towards the 

 extremity especially shaggy with copious dark-brown glossy 



