44 BLECHXUM. 



conlined mainly to the Malay Islands and Archipelago, whereas this seems pe- 

 ciiHar to the southern shores of Australia, from Port Jackson in the east to King 

 George's Sound (Hiiffel), in the west. It is of a far more slender hahit than the 

 species just mentioned, with narrower and more remote segments, and is very 

 correctly figured by Mettenius, 1. c. A comparison of that figure with those we 

 here give of Bl. nUidum (Tab. CIA".), and its var. contractu (Tab. CLVI.), will 

 enable any one to judge how far we have done right in keeping them distinct. 



3. Bl. nitidum, Pr. ; caudex . . . ?, fronds ample It*— 3 feet 

 oblong-ovate in circumscription truncate at the base firm- 

 coriaceous pinnatifid almost to the rachis, segments very 

 numerous a})proximate linear-lanceolate acuminate more or 

 less falcate sharply serrated, lower ones almost equal in 

 length to those above them and free (so that the fronds are 

 pinnated below), veins very close simple patent, sori close to 

 the costa continuous from the base to near the apex, stipes 

 elongated nearly free from scales, rachis 2-furrowed beneath. 

 (Tab. CLV.) — Var. contracta; inferior segments and joinnac 

 suddenly contracted alcove the broad l)ase, and the contracted 

 portion only fertile. (Tab. CLVI.) — Pr, Reliq. Hank. i. p. 49 

 [twcl. syn. of Desv., and of Pr. Del. Prag. i. p. 187). J- Sm. 

 in Hook. Journ. Bot. iii. p. 406. Bl. elongatum, Gaud, in 

 Freyc. Voy. Bot. p. 395 {fide Presl). Bl. (occidentale ?) 

 confluens, Schlecht. in Linncea, v. p. 613? Bl. aduncum, 

 Liebm. Fil. Mex. p. 85 ? Blechnopsis nitida, Pr. Epiin. Bot. 

 p. 116. 



Hah. Isle of Sorzogon, Luzon, Ilcenke. Mishmee, Griffith. Mexico .', Schiede 

 and Doppe, Liebmann. South Brazil, Tweedie, n. 1122. Guam, Marianne Islands, 

 Gaudicliaud. — Var. contracta. Luzon, Cuming, n. 164. Boyd's Creek, Isle of 

 Gaudalcomar, in woods, Milne, in Denliam's Voyage of ILM.S. Herald. — This 

 species has no small afhnity with the Auslr.alian Bl. cartilagineum of Swartz and 

 Brown, as already intimatid, but is much larger in all its parts, with much broader 

 and more closely-placed segments, and wanting the produced and almost lobed bases 

 in the broad sinuses of that species. Presl, the author of the species in the first 

 instance, confounded it with /}/. Brasiliense, and published it as such, changing the 

 name Brasiliense to a not very appropriate one, nitidum. He detected his error, how- 

 ever, for though the upper part of the frond in our plant resembles Bl. Brasilien.ie, 

 it differs most widely in not having the lower pinnaj contracted or dwarfed, and 

 lie introduced it as a distinct species in his ' Epimelia; Botanical,' and referred to 

 it the Blechnum, n. 164, of Mr. Cuming, from Luzon. Those specimens, how- 

 ever, are, as well as Mr. Milne's from Boyd's Creek, a peculiar variety of the 

 present, having the fertile segments remarkably contracted above the base, so as 

 to be almost lomaroid. My Mishmee specimens, I cannot doubt, are the normal 

 state ; and what is very remarkable, I have from Tweedie, gathered in S. Brazil, 

 a species so closely resendjling, that I am compelled, as it were, to refer it here. 

 Sehleclitendal, indeed. I.e., has noticed a Blechnum from Mexico which he calls 

 confluevs, but doubtfully refers to occidentale, \\'\X\\ the remark, " Ab omnibus 

 speciminibus Bl. occidentalis collatis, b;i'C uuico charactere divorsum, folio pin- 

 natilido nee pinnato; pinnis basi semper eonlluentibus nee discretis, auricidatis." 

 Liebmann, judging by his reference to Schlechtendal, seems to have detected the 

 same planf. 



