170 ASPLEN'IUM, § EUASPI.ENIUM. 



ovate obtuse or suhacuniinate subl<)i)ate unequally serrated in 

 their superior half, terminal ones small and confluent into a 

 pinnatifid apex, inferior pinnules with a large cuneate auricle 

 at the superior base sometimes free, and sometimes though 

 rarely the pinnules are again pinnated, veins erect parallel 

 subflabellate (giving a striated appearance) no distinct costa, 

 sori copious linear but varying in lengtli, involucres firm- 

 membranaceous. (Tau. CCII.) — Sw. in Schrud. Joiirn. 1800. 

 ii. p. 56. Syn. Fil. p. 84. 279. WiUd. Sjj. PL v. p. 343. 

 Moore, Lid. Fil. p. Ill {)/o( of Kunze, Bot. Zeit. vi. p. 175. 

 under n. 347 ~)' Aspl. cuneatum, Metten. p. 117- — Moore, 

 in his Index, adds as synonyms Aspl. nitidum, Sw. ?, in part, 

 from Mauritius, of which I appear to have no specimen, and 

 Cicnopteris cuneata, and Darea cuneatu, and Daren obtusa, all 

 of Desvaux, which I have no opportunity of verifying. 



Ilab. Mauritius, Sieher (Syn. Fil. n. 71), and all collectors there.* Bourbon, 

 Carmichael {\nnr\\\\&i more acuminated). — Extremely common, if I may judge from 

 the numerous specimens 1 have received thence, and almost invariably under the 

 name of Axjd. cuneatum, though it is sensibly different from the West Indian 

 state of Lamarck, the original authority. Capt. Carmichael alone (Herb. Nostr.), 

 had attached the name of A. ajfine to that Mauritian plant. Willdenow seems 

 only to have known A. affine from Swartz's description. Presl and Fee appear to 

 ignore the name altogether. Kunze has, I think, fallen into an error, in Bot. 

 Zeitung, 1. c, in considering the S. American and W. Indian and his own A. 

 caneatinn of Pceppig, from Peru, the A. ajjine of Sw. and Sieber's Syn. Fil. n. 71. 

 This circumstance again appears to have induced Mettenius to unite A.ajpne\s\i\\ 

 A. cuneatum, verum. Moore adopts, I think judiciously, the A. affine, Sw. (in- 

 cluding Sieber's n. 71), and restores the plant of Pucppig, from Cuba, and the 

 W. Indian specimen, to their place as the original cuneatum of Lamarck. A. 

 affine is unquestionably much more nearly allied to A. spathuUnum, J. Sm., than 

 to the ordinary forms of A. cuneatum, in colour, size, and texture ; and it would 

 be ditlicult to detect a valid distinction, save in the almost universally spathulate 

 or cuneate form of the pininiles of A. spathuUnum, as comjiared with the rhom- 

 boideo-ovate and more unequally-sided segments of the pinnules of A. affine. 

 These differences will be best seen in our figures. 



145. A. (Euasplenium) spathuUnum, J. Sm. ; stipites 6 

 inches and more high quite smooth and naked lurid-brown, 

 fronds 1-1 4 long broad- or ovato-lanceolate acuminate co- 

 riaceous dark brown when dry and very opaque quite free 

 from scales bipinnate in the perfect state pinnate at the very 

 apex sometimes pinnate with pinme from an unequally cuneate 

 and auriclcd base entire and others deeply pinnatifid at their 

 base or subpinnate, pinna3 lanceolate broad at their base, pin- 



* Moore gives for localitiis of A. affine, Sw., besides the " Mascaren Islands" 

 (.Mauritius and Bourbon), " India, Ceylon, Thwailes, n. 1800, Gardner, n. 1084, 

 Java, Borneo, and Island of Joliia." 



