ASPLENIUM, § EUASPLENIUM. 125 



Presl, I cannot only say that 1 liave been under an impression that the plant of 

 these authors was a truly diplazioid speeies. Presl himself refers to Swartz, A. 

 radicans (the earliest authority for the species), and to the figure of Schkuhr, 

 t. 70 (called radicans, Ssv., in the text, hut A. rhizuphorum in the ])late), and 

 this I have long known as a common West Indian species with large compound 

 fronds and broad pinnules quite like the larger kinds of Diplazium, and well re- 

 presented by Schkuhr, 1. c. Desvaux, not Presl, appears to be the first w ho called 

 it Diplazium radicans. This species, however, will be treated of more fully in 

 its proper place. 



Swartz was the first to notice the bipinnate form of Aapl. rhizophorum in his 

 'Observationes Botanical,' where he says, though he attributes the change to age, 

 p. 399, under this species, " Planta junior simpliciter pinnata, adultior bipinnata." 

 Some of the bipinnate specimens, with the larger obovate pinnules, bear a very 

 close resemblance to small states of Aspl. cunealum, Lam., and could with diffi- 

 culty be distinguished from it but from the presence of the flagelliform rachis. — 

 It may be a matter of surprise to see this species with its very compound pinna; 

 placed in the Salicifolium-'^vov\\), but the simply pinnated form has a belter right 

 to such an arrangement and where the undivided pinna; are an inch and a half 

 long. Their comparatively small size indicates a passage to the Resectum-^vo\\\). 

 In proportion as the pinnaj become more compound, the length and breadth in- 

 creases to 3-4 inches. 



(JXe%tci\\m-group. Tijpe Aspl. resectum, Sin. — Pinnate. Pinnee rarely exceed- 

 ing an inch in length, herbaceous or membranaceous, or subcoriaceous, entire 

 or subpinnatijid,ivith the inferior base or maryinrnore or less excised, — cut off 

 by a straight or curved line.) 



82. A. (Euasplenium) ciimptoraclns, Kze. ; " frond mem- 

 branaceous glabrous flexuose lanceolate attenuated at the 

 apex (often gemmiparous) pinnate, pinnae approximate sessile 

 divergent or patulous, from an oblique base truncated above 

 broadly auricled, below much cuneato-excised decurrent entire 

 ovato-oblong obtuse duplicato- and obtusely serrated, lowest 

 or inferior ones abbreviated ovate auricled on each side 

 superior ones minute flabellate, sori near the costa olilong, 

 on the lower half of the pinna3 none in the auricle sometimes 

 solitary, rachis slender, margined flexuose and as well as the 

 short stipes marginato-angulate, near the base squamose with 

 fusco-paleaceous livid opaque scales, rhizome short rosulate, 

 nigro-paleaceous radiculose." Kze. in Linncca, xxiv. p. 262. 

 — Metten. Asplen. p. 120. Moore, Lid. Fil. p. 118. 



Hab. Neilghcrries, Schrnid, n. 123. — "Allied to A. marinum, L., but in the 

 membranaceous, flexuose frond, the slender, scarcely compressed rachis, inferior 

 and superior pinna; being different from the middle piun^, and the stipes at the 

 base rigidly paleaceous (not atro-purpureous), it is abundantly distinct." Mette- 



dicans, I am ignorant. — Since the above was printed, I am favoured by the author 

 with a succeeding sheet of the Index Filicum, and find tlie A. radicans above 

 quoted of Moore, is of Schkuhr (not Swartz). 



