112 ASPLENIUM, § El'ASPLEMUM. 



(as represented by Mettenius, /. c.) ; S. Africa, chiefly the eastern districts, at and 

 towards Natal, Dreye, Gucinzius, Sanderson, Capt. Garden. — Var. incisn-pinna- 

 tifidmn. Graham's Town, Col. Bolton. Natal, J. L.\ Meade.— Yur. latifolium. 

 Natal, Sander.ion. Kat River, Ecklon. Bonrbon, Boivin (fide Metten.). Tro- 

 pical S. America, Brazil, Gardner, n. 5942, 5964. Cuba, Linden, n. 1887; 

 Wright, n. 845. Galajiagos, Darwin, Capt. Wood (stipes and rachis almost 

 black, with quite the habit and pinna: of J. Prionitis, but the serratures less 

 acute). — I prefer giving the specific character of the author of the species to any 

 framed by myself. Kunze observes: " Ditfertapra^ccdentil)ns" (y/.//ewOT;/'«-Mmand 

 A. Prionitis) " fronde lineari-lanceolata, pinnis nunicrosioribus (ad 32), patenti- 

 divergentibus approxiniatis suboppositis" (i)y no means constant), " basi valde iiife- 

 qualibus, soris abbreviatis costa^que vicinis. Forma /3 ill! a cl. de Schlechtendal, 

 cum suo A. lucido descriptx aliatque A. protensi, Schrad., omnino analoga." The 

 main distinguishing character, I fear, must be looked for in the very short and 

 very tumid sori ; the involucre also is subfornicate, as in Athyrinm. This species 

 has generally been considered peculiar to S. Africa. Mettenius refers to it a 

 specimen from Bourbon, Moore from Ceylon and Central America, and in my 

 herbarium the latter author has noted specimens from widely-separated localities 

 in the New World and Galapagos as the same. The S. American state, however, 

 has less serrated margins to the pinna;, and I must confess, ready as I am to 

 agree to this opinion, it thns becomes difficult to discriminate between it and 

 A. oUgophyllum, Kaulfs., also S. American, and even A. persicifolium, J. Sm., 

 from the Philippines, etc. In short, it is no easy task to know when to separate 

 and when to combine. It will be seen l)y the figure I have given of one of the 

 varieties at our Tab. CLXVI., how unlike it is to the normal form represented 

 by Mettenius, yet I am satisfied they belong to one and the same species. 



63. A. (Euasplenium) salic'ifoHum, L. ; caudex short thick 

 somewhat woody enveloped in a dense mass of ferruginous 

 woolly fibres and generally bearing the split wiry bases some 

 inches long of the former year's stipites, stipites caespitose a 

 span to a foot high, fronds 1 to H foot long broad-ovate 

 acuminate pale opaque dull-green subcoriaceo-membrana- 

 ceous iinpari-pinnate, pinnce remote especially the lower 

 ones spreading 4-6 inches long from a broad obliquely cu- 

 neate base (tapering into rather a long jjetiole) broad-lanceo- 

 late subfalcate much acuminated obscurely and remotely 

 serrated or quite entire, superior base slightly produced and 

 rounded scarcely at all auricled, the inferior more oblique, 

 veins erecto-patent rather close twice or thrice forked termi- 

 nating within the margin (and there occasionally anasto- 

 mosing), sori linear elongate intermediate between the costa 

 and the margin and not extending to either distant but 

 very regular, involucre membranous. — Linn. Sp. PI. ]). 15.38. 

 Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 77. Willd. Sp. PL v. p. 3 13. Kze. in Linncea, 

 ix.^j. 64. Metten. Asplen. p. 100. t. 4. f.\4. Lonchitis glabra 

 major, Plum. Fil. t. 60. A. integerrimum, Spr. Nov. Act. N. C. 

 1821, p. 231 {not Wall.). Prcsl, Tent. Pterid. p. 107- Moore, 

 Ind. Fil. p. 138. A. salicifolium, iv/r. integerrimum, Metten. 



