DOODIA. 73 



teeth, areoles in a single series as in Doodia, sori uniseriate 

 distinct appressed to the costa, indusium plane close to 

 the costa rigidly membranaceous." Metten. Hart. Fil. Lips. 

 p. G5. t. G, 3, 4 [excellent). — Doodia maxima, J. Sm. Bot. 

 Mag. Misc. 27. 



Hal). New South Wales; ravines on the banks of the Nepean and on the 

 AVarra-burrha River, 1825, C. Fraser, A. Cunningham. — In a note of Allan Cuu- 

 iiinghani's to the species of Doodia enumerated by him in the Comp. to the Bot. 

 Mag., I.e., he charaeterizes a new Australian species of the genus, collected by 

 Frazer and himself in 182.'i, under the name of D. blechnoides, so named, probably, 

 though he does not notice the fact, from the unusually close proximity of the lines 

 of fructification to the costa. Mr. J. Smith possesses, from Cunningliam himself, 

 a specimen under this name, and I have one from Fraser, both corresponding, 

 and both sufficiently according with Allan Cunningham's brief character, except 

 that our specimens are destitute of the lower abbreviated pinnules, the presence 

 of which would ally the species to D. anpera. From seeds or spores of his speci- 

 men Mr. Smith assures me he has raised a very fine Doodia, with an erect arbo- 

 rescent caudex a foot high and an inch thick, bearing a crown of fronds 2 feet 

 long (including the short stipes), and this is the origin of the D. blechnoides of 

 our gardens, and of which an excellent figure of a frond and fructified portion 

 magnified are given by Mettenius, I.e., perfectly according with the living plant 

 of Kew, with specimens taken from it in former years in Mr. Smith's herbarium, 

 and also with other specimens thus taken from the plants in the late Messrs. 

 Loddiges' garden. These have the singularly abbreviated basal lobes as described 

 by Cunningham (and quite resembling those of D. aspera), but the segments are 

 much broader than those described by Cunningham, and much more approximate 

 and less decurrent below than our native specimens : all however have sori close 

 to the costa and always uniseriate, which is peihaps the most important feature 

 of the plant ; they give a more Woodwardioid character to it : and, when dry, 

 our native specimens partake more of that yellowish-brown colour common to 

 Woodwardia as seen in the herbarium. 



It must be observed that Mettenius describes the caudex or rhizome as " re- 

 pent and oblique." Perhaps his plant was young, and the caudex not fully deve- 

 loped. Ours has, for any one of this genus, though small, yet quite an arbo- 

 rescent character of stem. 



3. D. dives, Kze. ; " frond coriaceous glabrous obsoletely 

 veined ovato-oblong acuminate, at the base remotelj^, towards 

 the apex more densely, decursivo-pinnate at length confluent, 

 pinncB patently divergent oblong, costa prominulent beneath, 

 on each side especially above pungently serrated, inferior 

 ones shortly petiolate auriculate subattenuate rotundately 

 obtuse at the apex mucronate the middle and superior ones 

 adnate or on each side {imprimis deorsum) broadly decurrent 

 sublinear falcate much attenuated obtuse the supreme ones 

 at the elongated apex of the frond subsinuato-confluent, sori 

 subbiseriate lunate at length confluent, indusia herbaceous, 

 petioles rachis and moderately long and angled stipes ebe- 

 neous, at the base of the stipes blackish-paleaceous, rhizome 

 obliquely ascending black -paleaceous radicosc clothed with 



VOL. III. L 



