32 LOMARIA. 



pinna being contracted: then the soii within the broader portion are irregularly 

 •waved and partially broken up into short pieces, which have a tendency to an oblique 

 direction (not parallel with the costa). Where the whole of the fertile pinna 

 takes a manifestly broader form throughout (broad-linear acuminate), I find the 

 sorus broken up into Wondwnrdia- or Doodia-Wk^i involucres, more or less oblique 

 with regard to the costa, still preserving an imperfect contiguity. But, when the 

 fertile pinnre are at the broadest (and I possess some half an inch in diameter), 

 the sori are completely separate<l into very oblique, almost transverse, double 

 sori, distant from the costa, sometimes halfway between it and the margin ; and, 

 if one of the more transparent specimens of these be held up between the eye 

 and the light, and examined with a pocket-lens, it will be seen that the costal 

 areoles, formed by the fi-ansverse rcceptacular veins of Lomaria. are singularly 

 elongated, together with the rcceptacular vein itself, carrying its portion of the 

 sorus with it, taking nearly the shape of an inverted letter V (A). The broken 

 portion of the sorus or involucre is, if I may so say, caiTied along with it, and 

 thus is formed an abnormal, double involucre, the two opening face to face and 

 resembling those of a Scolopendrium. The careful IVfettenius, indeed, has repre- 

 sented, and I have no doubt accurately, the venation of this kind in his Hort. Fil. 

 Lips., 1. c, but the rcceptacular veins are made to appear to separate into two, 

 and this may possibly occur also, but the thinnest of the fronds of this Fern are 

 very opaque, and the exact nature of the rcceptacular veins, thus transformed, is 

 not easily detected. 



It is singular that although Kunzewas aware of the affinity of his S'co/o/^CTirfrmm 

 Krebsii with Loniaria puncfnlata, and though he actually represents at f. C, 

 t. 74, of his Sujipl. to Schkuhr's Ferns, a state of his Scolopendi-ium with the 

 perfect sori of Lomaria or Blcchnum (and the sferile fronds of the two are iden- 

 tical), and though he says of S. Krebsii, " Der Farnn zeigt den Habitus einer 

 Lomaria, z. B. nieiner L. puncfidata, und die Fiedcrn dor jiingstcn Mcdel sind 

 kurz tind breit," yet did not detect their specific conformity ; nor did M. Fee, 

 although he dwells on the " transmutations" of the fructification of Scol. Krebsii. 

 He does so, however, in reference to the figures of Kunze, not apparently from 

 his own observations on the plant. 



35. L. Germainii, Hook. ; rhizome rather than caudex 

 subterranean perpendicular rooting and bearing the remains 

 of old stipites branched at the summit and paleaceous with 

 brown scales, stipites tufted on these heads or branches ^ 

 an inch to an inch and a quarter long stramineous slightly 

 paleaceous dark-brown at the base, fronds from 1 to 3 

 inches long pinnate, sterile ones spreading firm coriaceous 

 subpatent oblong-lanceolate obtuse, pinnee oblong or ob- 

 long-ovate close-placed and even imbricated (except the 

 small inferior one) 3-4 lines long horizontal very obtuse 

 sessile slightly decurrent at the base entire or obscurely 

 sinuato-crenate some of the superior ones with the upper 

 margin 3-4-lobed the edge thickened and somewhat cartila- 

 ginous, veins sunk obscure, fertile fronds one to each tuft 

 of sterile ones (in the specimens before me) on a stipes twice 

 or more the length of the sterile, oblong obtuse brown, 

 pinn£e oblong crowded thick curved upwards the sides much 

 reflexed, involucres brown quite marginal in age slightly 



