HLKCllNUM. 55 



scribed, the Bl. striatum of tlic accurate Brown. Prcsl considers that lie has 

 detected important <listingnishing characters, and lie speaks of an affinity (not 

 clear to us) with III. occ'utcntale, — hut he never aUudes to an alliance with BL 

 slriatum, when he says, " Spcciniina sterilia ob pinnas hreviores latioresque a 

 fcrtilibus pauluiuni distincta" (which is sometimes the case, and in that particular 

 approaches the Australian Bl. aml/ignum). " llocce dimorphismo et articula- 

 tione pinnaruin cum rachi a congeneribus recedit." The same articulation of the 

 pinn£c upon the rachis however exists in our present plant, and this character 

 constitutes Presl's section "Diafnia" of his genus Blcchnopsix. 



21. Bl. striatum, Br. ; caudex ascending thick rough 

 knotted rooting and scaly, stipes a span to a foot long 

 glossy semiterete brown-stramineous, ])lack and scaly only 

 at the base, fronds H-2 feet long ol)long-lanceolate firm 

 subcoriaccous shining pinnated, pinntc articulated on the 

 rachis all distinct sessile linear-elliptical remote often oppo- 

 site obliquely cuncate or obtuse or even cordate at tlic base 

 rarely olitusely subacuminatcd at the apex terminal one 

 elongated the nmrgins sharply serrated sterile ones with 

 small brown scales on the costa, veins dose compact mostly 

 simple prominent beneath, sori close to the costa conti- 

 nuous, (Tab. CLIX.) — Br. Prodr. p. 152. Desv. in Ann. 

 Soc. Linn. Par. vi. j'' 284. Spreng. Syst. Veyet. iv. j)- 93 

 {excl. syn. LahiL). Sieb. Fl. Mixta, n. 725. J. Stn. in 

 Hook. Journ. Bot. iii. j!?. 406. Bl. Moluccanum, Besv. Berl. 

 Mag. V. jj. 325. Blechnum stramineum, Labil. Sertum 

 Austro-Caledon. p. 213. Blechnum squamulosum, Kaulf. 

 in Sieb. Fl. Mixta, n. 242. Blechnopsis striata, Pr. Epini. 

 Bot. p. 119. Blechnopsis Malaccensis, Pr. Epim. Bot. 

 p. 120. 



Hab. New Holland. Port Jackson, Brown, Bauer, Sieber. Near M'Adam's 

 Range, and between Providence Ilill and Point Pierce, Victoria, F. Mueller, 1855. 

 Port Essington, N. Australia, Armstrong. l\Ialacca, Cuming, n. 385 ; Mishmee, 

 in marshes, Griffith (inscribed " Blec/oium pteridioides'"). Moist, open plains, 

 Labuan, T/ios. Lohh. — Were it not for the distinguished names which, as it 

 were, warrant the conservation of this as a distinct species, I should have little 

 hesitation in uniting it with the American Bl. serrulafum, our immediately pre- 

 ceding species. Certain it is that in the Old World this is found in widely 

 diffused localities. There cannot be a question of the Malayan plant being 

 identical with the Australian one. The fact, as I believe it to i)e, that the pre- 

 sent plant is identical with, not even a variety of, Bl. serrulatinn, renders it tlie 

 more probable that my American Bl. nitidum is in reality the same as the Ma- 

 layan Bl. nitidum of authors, and hence teaches us a lesson that widely separated 

 localities are not indicative of specific distinctions. 



22. Bl. Icevigatum, Cav. ; caudex thick ascending clothed 

 with large lanceolate pale-ferruginous paleaceous scales, 

 stipes i a foot to a foot long pale-brown subtetragonous 

 scaly at the base, fronds 1-H foot long oblong-ovate trun- 



