124 ASPLENIUM, § EUA8PLENIUM. 



quite entirp) ; same form and same locality, Fendler, n. 140, Birschel (ordinary 

 form) ; and Fendler, n. 43-4 (pinnae shorter, broad at the base, falcate, deeply 

 cut at the margin into narrow segments) ; Galipan, Moritz, n. 306 j8 (A. 

 Karstenianum, A7.). Brazil, Rio, Gardner, n. 171, and Organ Mountains, n. 5941 

 (pinna; entire at the margin). — Var. \. pinnato-pinnatifidum. J diimlca, M'Fadyeii ; 

 Caracas, Jurgensen, n. Go?. Venezuela, Fendler, n. 120 )3. British Guiana, 

 Schom/jitrffk-, n. 1200 (from Klolzsch, as A. allocopteron, Kze. MS.). Kunze 

 gives Venezuela, Karsten, Metfeiiius ; and Portorico, Scfnranecke, but my spe- 

 cimen from that collector and that locality is the normal form of the species. — 

 Var. 2. bipinnatum. In this var. the superior small pinna; are unchanged, the 

 intermediate, and especially the lowest pinna;, quite pinnate. Jamaica, Dr. 

 Bancroft, Purdie, M'Fadi/en (one specimen with small distant narrow cuneate 

 bi-trifiil i)innules; another with large broadly obovate pinnules, petiolulate, 

 nearly half an inch long, lobulato-serrale, quite resembling the pinnules of Jspl. 

 cuneatum). Cuba, C. JVriyht, n. 850 (large pinnules), and 851 (small pinnules). 

 Columbia, Moritz, n. 43 and 44 ; Otto, n. 651 (pinnae rhomboid piunatifid, A. 

 flabellulatum, var. partitum, Kze.). Merida, Moritz, n. "44 .'" (A. flabellulatuni, 

 dcntatum, Knnze ; pinnae large). Venezuela, Fendler, n. 127 (large pinuffi). — 

 Var. 3. triplnnattnn (pinnules and superior pinna; all small, laciniated, and dareoid). 

 Brazil, Rio, Raddi, Gardner, n. 42, a7id 170. Island of St. Sebastian, 3Ir. Fo.r ; 

 Gongosoco, Gardner, n. 5308. Caracas, Linden, n. 153, and 163. N. Granada, 

 Funclc, n. 655. Oaxaca, Mexico, Liehmavn (A. amabile, Liebm). S. Pacific, 

 Solomon's Group!, 3/27«e, 1858, Voyage of H. M.S. Herald : identical with the 

 S. American form. 



Perhaps no Fern, and certainly no Asplenium, not even the Aspl. Uneatum (our 

 n. 47), presents a more extraordinary variety and series of forms than the one 

 now under consideration, from the simply pinnate, or what is here considered 

 the normal state, — of which a very tolerable resemblance is given by old Plukenet* 

 above quoted, t. 253. f. 4, — to hi- and tripinnate fronds, with pinnules quite laci- 

 niated and cut into narrow segments resembling the most dissected of the species 

 of Darea or Canopteris of authors, together with all intermediate states. As 

 these different varieties have induced botanists to consider and describe them as 

 different species, it becomes difficult to assign the synonyms to the exact variety. 

 The uniting feature of these various forms into one species is to be found in the 

 prolongation of the rachis into a flagelliform extremity to the frond, destitute of 

 pinnae, and rooting (and probably proliferous, but that I have never seen,) at the 

 very apex, and to this character the species owes its original appellation, Aspl. 

 rhizophoron, by an unfortu.iate mistake in the edition of ' Linna;i Species Plan- 

 tarum,' of the date 1704 (that generally quoted), printed '' rhizophyllum :" 

 one state has been called, with great propriety as to application of the term, 

 rachirhizon (Raddi). Another author (Lowe, Nat. Hist, of Ferns, vol. v. 

 plate 12 B) lias called it Aspl. radicaus of Moore and Iloulston, quoting Z'ljjuto- 

 zium radlcans, Presl ; a circumstance that I should hardly have thought it worth 

 while to notice (of a work, too, not distinguished by Ijotanical research), but 

 that the accurate Moore, in ' Index Filicum,' p. 131, refers to the A.tpl. fabella- 

 tum, Kunze, and A.fabellulatum, Klotzscb, who adopts that name from Kunze, 1. c. 

 as the " Asplenium radicans."f I am probably justified in presuming that this 

 refers to the Asplenium radicans of Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 84, and if Moore and 

 Iloulston are the authority for Lowe's plant being the Diplazium radicans of 



* Plukenet, however, represents the elongated rachis as rooting by its side as 

 well as the apex, a state I have never seen, and it was probably a fancy of the 

 artist. 



t At the time I am writing, nothing of the ' Index Filicum' beyond the initial 

 m has been published ; of the references and synonyms, therefore, of his A. ra- 



