ASPLKNIUM, § FUTASPLENHTM. 191 



long ovate or ovato-lanceolate nearly sessile again pinnate in 

 their lower half, pinnules ovate or sul)rhoml)oid or oljovate 

 1-H line long very sharply dentate superior ones on the 

 frond and pinna^ confluent, veins forked moderately patent 

 flabcllatc in the lower pinnee, sori copious at length confluent, 

 involucres large for the size of the j)innules white oblong lax 

 subathyroid, rachis subniargined. — Hook. 2nd Cent, of Ferns, 

 t. 28. Aspl. lanceolatuni ?, var. elegans, Hook, in Florid, llong- 

 kony. Keiv Gard. Misc. ix. p. 342. Moore, Lid. Fil. p. 140. 

 Metten. Asp/en. p. 141. Athyrium fontanum, Eaton, in Asa 

 Graifs Bot. of Japan, vi. n. ser. of Mem. Am. Acad. Arts and 

 Sep. 421 and p. 4:36. 



Ilab. Island near Clui^an, Alexander. Port Ilainilton and Tsus Sima, Islands 

 in Corea Strait, JFilford, n. 753. Japan ; Naiigasaki, Miss Nehon, Babinglon. 

 Ilakodadi, Dr. Baines, of H.M.S. Sibylle. Simoda, C. Wright.— \ had placed this 

 delicate species dubiously under the Jsplenium lanceolatum as var. elegans, ob- 

 serving, however, that " future observations may prove it to be a new species ;" 

 and such more copious specimens than I then possessed justify me in considering 

 it to be so. Eaton is disposed to consider it a form of A. fontanum, but the habit 

 and structure are very different : and its nearest affinity, 1 think, is clearly with 

 A. lanceolatum : than which it is much smaller and more delicate, the frond nar- 

 rower, tapering remarkably below with dwarfed flabelliform pinna? ; the rest of 

 the frond, though truly bipinnate, has the pinnules, especially above the middle 

 of the pinnse, more frequently confluent : the involucres are much larger and 

 more (iecidedly athyroid. A. varians is known from this by its generally smaller 

 size, different outline of the fronds, and the cuneate pinnules, which are variously 

 inciso-laciniate. 



179- A. (Euasplenium) Abyssinicum, Fee; caudex ascend- 

 ing rather stout fibrous rooting above clothed with lanceolate 

 glossy brown scales, stipites coespitose 3-4 inches to a span 

 long stout and as well as main rachis glossy purple-ebeneous, 

 fronds a span to 1^ foot long broad lanceolate acuminate ten- 

 der membranaceous pellucid, bright-green, bi-tripinnate, pin- 

 nee sessile or nearly so lanceolate remote 2-4 inches long, 

 secondary pinnae ovate sessile, pinnules rhomboid ovate or 

 subrotund cuneate at the base subpetiolate entire or 1-3 or 

 4-lobed, a single vein forks off towards the lobes, sori always 

 remote from the margin at first small solitary on each lobe 

 afterwards prominent and pulvinate, involucres small thin 

 mendjranaecous, partial rachises all broad compressed green. 

 Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 199. Metten. Asplen.p. 129. t. r^.f 29. Moore, 

 Ind. Fil. p. 109. Aspl. euneatum, Sc/iimp. PI. Exsicc. It. Abyss. 

 1842, n. 679, and n. 668, of S chimp, in Herb. Mus. Par. 1858. 



Hal). Shady places, middle region of Mount Silke, Abyssinia, Schimper. — At 

 first sight this delicate and rare Fern has the aspect of Aspl. cicufarinm, but the 

 stipites and rachises, the form of jiinnulos, etc., are (piite different. 



