98 ASPLEXIUM, § EUASPLENIUM. 



margin (dareoid) but extending towards the costa, involucres 

 broad rigid, rachis broad compressed slightly winged above. 

 — Hombr. ct .lacq. Voy. au Pole Sud, Bot. Cnipt. t. 1 D. [less 

 deeply pinnatifid than some of our specimens). Hook. fil. Fl. 

 Antarct. i. ;;. 109, Brack.' But. Voy. U. S. Expl. Exped. p. 

 155. Metten. Asplen. p. 93. A. flaccidum, /3 Aucklandicum, 

 Hook. fil. Fl. Ant. p. 109. A. lucidum, jB scleroprium, Moore, 

 Lid. Fil. p. 142. 



Ilab. Lord Aiicklaiul's Islands, Ilombron and .facquinot, J. D. Hooker, Brack- 

 enridffe. — Dr. Hooker observes that this is common in woods near the sea, where 

 it makes a beautiful appearance by the bright shining green very coriaceous 

 fronds. Hombron and Jacquinot's figure is very characteristic, but neither 

 they nor any subsequent author has offered a specific character : nor do I do 

 so here under any conviction of the species being really distinct, but the difficulty 

 is to say what are its nearest affinities. It has every appearance of being a 

 dareoid (or ca^nopteroid) state of some Aspleninm with entire or nearly entire 

 pinn?e. Their long-acuminated points resemble A. lucidum .- the shorter sori 

 bring it nearer to our var. ohUijiium of A. obtusatum ; while some of Dr. Hooker's 

 specimens are so deeply divided in the pinna; and of that peculiar pale colour 

 which render it hardly possible to distinguish it from Aspl. Jiaccidum, Forst., 

 that it is a matter of no surprise he should have considered it an extreme 

 southern state of that species. Nor should I be surprised if future observations 

 confirm this opinion. There is however among Dr. Hooker's specimens of (his 

 plant one which cannot be distinguished from the normal form of A. obtusatum. 

 We li<ive under the preceding species had to record variations as remarkable as 

 these. Some of our specimens of A. scleroprium are darkish-green ; others quite 

 brown in the dried state. 



38. A. (Euasplenium) paradoxum., Bl. ; "fronds pinnate 

 meml)ranaceous glaljrous rooting at the point, pinnte shortly 

 petiolate subaltern ate trapezoideo-olilong acuminate, at the 

 superior base truncato-subauriculate, inferior base abscisso- 

 cuneate unequally repando-crenulate striated, sori remote 

 transverse, stipes and rachis nearly terete furfuraceous." Bl. 

 En. Fil.Jav.p. 179. — Metten. Asplen. p. 122. Tarachia pa- 

 radoxa, Pr. Epim. p. 260. 



Ilab. Java, growing on large trees, Blume. — Although possessing a specimen 

 of this Fern from Dr. Blume himself, I nevertheless give his character of the 

 species. This specimen is peculiar in some points not mentioned by Blume. The 

 pinnae are membranaceous, dark-green above, of a dingy rusty-brown beneath : 

 the veins are singularly close and compact, erecto-patent at a very acute angle 

 with the slender costa, consequently very long, and the sori also very long 

 (nearly an inch) and slender, and so far from being " transverse" are almost 

 parallel with the costa: the involucre is very narrow, membranaceous. The 

 length of thepinnaj is 5-6 inches, breadth an inch and a half, obtusely auricled 

 at the base, very finely acuminated. Sandwich Island specimens of what I con- 

 sider to be A. obtusatum, Forst., are marked in my herbarium, by Mr. Moore, as 

 paradoxum, Bl. 



39. A. (Euasplenium) lucidum, Forst. ; caudex short thick 

 woody paleaceous with copious imbricated ovate long-acu- 



