64 BLECFINUM. 



N.B. The following species should l)e inserted at p. 52, after Blechnum occi- 

 dentale, viz. : — 



{Veins anastomosing .') 



14*. Bl. mclanopns, Hook.; caudex . . . ?, frond spitha- 

 meous (and more ?) broadly falcato-lanceolate t^lossy subco- 

 riaceous pinnate, pinnrc very apj)roxiniate from a rather broad 

 adnate base linear-oblong falcate somewhat acute the margin 

 entire narrowly rcvolute uppermost ones gradually confluent 

 into a lanceolate elongated lobe the lowest .3-4 pair suddenly 

 diminished short very obtuse subauriculate at the superior 

 base, veins internal reticulated ! forming large angled areoles 

 next the costa, narrower oblique ones often extending to the 

 margin, ultimate veinlets free and clavate at their apex just 

 within the margin, sori quite close to the costa continuous 

 not reaching to the apex of the pinntc, stipes (about a span 

 long) and lower half of the rachis beneath black. (Tab. 

 CLXI.) 



Hal). Khasya Hills, Eastern Bengal, Mr. Simons, n. 78. — While this sheet is in 

 type, I have the gratification to find, in a beautiful collection of Khasya Ferns, formed 

 by Mr. Simons, in the collection of Mrs. Col. Lyell, this remarkable species. It 

 is but a solitary specimen, destitute of caudex or root, but as a Blechnum it is 

 unmistakably distinct. The first and most important character is the anasto- 

 mosing of the veins, very much as in some Lifobrochia amoi\g Pferis. In general 

 outline and pinnated frond, its nearest athnity is doubtless with Bl. occidenfale, 

 but the i)innai are more numerous, more approximated, indeed all of them very 

 closely so, not only sessile but strictly adnate at the base, yet not at all decur- 

 rent; the three lowest pairs suddenly abbreviated and very obtuse, so that the 

 two lowest pinna; are semicircular, and not 2 lines long. The broadest part of 

 the frond is below the middle, where the pinna; are an inch and a half long, and 

 these gradually diminish upwards into a lanceolate, acuminated terminal seg- 

 ment, little more than an inch long. The texture is peculiar, thicker than the 

 fronds of other sjjecies of Blechnum in general, less pellucid, more coriaceous, 

 yet glossy, and in the dry state (the only condition known to us) having the 

 cuticle or epidermis, as it were, wrinkled and loosened from the parenchyma, 

 particularly between the veins, very much as we see in the cuticle of the dried 

 leaves of the Box. The sori and involucres are of the ordinary character, and 

 placed quite close to the costa. The stipes is about equal in length to the frond 

 in the specimen before us, quite black, yet not glossy or ebeneous; and the same 

 colour on the under side extends about halfway up the rachis, and as far as the 

 black colour extends, the surface is very minutely elevato-pnnetulate. 



In our Blechnum Fendleri (p. 48, and Tab. CLVIII. Fig. 4), a true Blechnum, 

 there is a dis])osition in the veins to anastomose, but there the free veins are evi- 

 dently the normal character, whereas the reverse takes place here; the free veins 

 are exceptional, and very much confined to the forked ultimate veinlets. Again, 

 in the section Salpichheno, there is a thickened margin of the j)inna:, with which 

 the apices of the otherwise free transverse veins unite ; but this again is quite 

 different from the frequently anastomosing and reticulation of the veins of the 

 present species. 



