ASPLENIUM, § EUASPLENIUM. 209 



niities. The ramification, too, has the less compound character of the var. f^tan^s of 

 that species ; but instead of having the pale colour when dry, and firm, opaque, 

 leathery consistency of that species, it is a deep lurid-green, quite niemhrana- 

 ceous, semitranslucent, so that the veins come distinctly into view when held be- 

 tween the eye and the light : the pinnae and segments are very broad, and, what 

 is more remarkable, though with quite the habit of true Darea, none of the sori 

 are marginal, hut on the disc, in the broad and compound piunnles opening 

 towards the costa, as in my Dareastrum-sect'ion. Kuiize and Moore consider 

 the Ctpnopteris articulata, Th. in Act. Nov. Pctrop. ix. t. E. f. 2 (which I have 

 no opportunity of consulting), the original authority for A. Thnnheryii of Kunze : 

 that was probably a Cape plant, but no recent author had described the present 

 species. 



201. A. (Euasplenium) 'prolonijafum. Hook.; caudex small 

 woody inclined rooting scarcely scaly, stipites 2-4 inclies 

 long tufted stramineous subcomprcssed, fronds 1-5 inches to 

 a foot long at the utmost coriaceous or subchartaceous ob- 

 long or narrow linear-oblong often falcate suddenly termi- 

 nating in a caudate naked extension of the racliis 1-2 inches 

 long rooting at the very apex hi- scarcely tripinnatc, primary 

 pinnae 1-1 1 inch long horizontally patent generally a])proxi- 

 mateor crowded semiovate obtuse petiolate semipinnatc (pin- 

 nules more numerous on the superior than the inferior side), 

 pinnules 3-4 hues long mostly simple entire rarely forked still 

 more rarely and only in the lowest superior pinnule bi- or 

 tripartite, pinnules and segments narrow-linear often curved 

 obtuse monosorous, veins single, sori oblong or linear very 

 narrow marginal, involucres firm-membranaceous of the 

 same pale green colour as the frond. — Hook. 2nd Cent, of 

 Ferns, t. 42. 



Hah. East Indies, on trees ; Mishmec, Griffith, Simons, n. 235. Khasya, 

 Hooker fil. and Thomnon. Bhotan, Booth. Ceylon, Mrs. General Walker, 

 Gardner, n. 1348. Tsus Sima, Gulf of Corea, Witford. — Judging from the In- 

 dian and Ceylon stations quoted from the llookerian Herbarium by Mr. Moore 

 (Ind. Fil. p. 103), he refers this ])lant to his As])l. rutcpfolium, ^ furcatum, but 

 to this view I cannot willingly subscribe. The plant is of a much smaller size, the 

 caudex is different, and apparently not paleaceous, or exhibiting only a few insig- 

 nificant scattered scales about the base of the stipites, the remarkable and very 

 general prolongation of the rachis rooting at the point, the generally dimidiate 

 ()inn!c (that is, the suppression of two or more of the inferior i)innules on the 

 lower side), the narrow-elongated pinn'nles, the most compound of which are 

 rarely more than once forked, are all distinguishing marks not found in any form 

 of A. ruta-folium, or of the so-called j3 furcatum. It is a very elegant, and, to 

 my mind, well-marked species, 



202. A. (Euasplenium) Belangeri ; caudex short stout 

 erect apparently formed of the united stipites and roots, sti- 

 pites densely tufted 4 inches to a s])an long compressed up- 

 wards greenish, fronds 1-1 j foot long narrow-oblong (the 



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