232 ASPLENIUM, § ATHYRIUM. 



bidentate superior ones confluent, veins pinnate simple or 

 forked, sori copious 5-G on each pinnule short oblong, invo- 

 lucre fornicate very membranaceous soon breaking irregularly 

 in the middle or at the inner margin, primary and secondary 

 rachises stramineous terete, tertiary more or less winged by 

 the decurrent bases of the pinnules. — J. Sm. in Hook. Jonrn. 

 Bot. iv. p. 171 [7iot Kaulf.). Metten. Fit. Hort. Lips. p. 79. 

 Asplen. p. 192. IVebb. and Berthel. Fl. Canar. Pt. ii. p. 442. 

 Allantodia, Br. Fl. Nov. HoU. p. 149. Kze. in Linnaa, xxiii. 

 p. 218. Aspidium, S10. Syn. Fit. p. 60. Schk. Fil. p. 59. 

 t. Gl (A. axillare on the ptate), very good as to the sori and 

 involucres. JViltd. Sp. PL v. p. 283. Athyrium, Pr. Poly- 

 podium, Ait. Allantodia oligantha, Desv. Aspidium, Desv. 

 Asplenium Aitoni, Moore, Ind. Fit. p. 111. Asplenium 

 axillare, IVebb. et Berth. Fl. Canar. Pt. ii, p. 442. Metten. 

 Asplen. p. 200. Allantodia, Kaulf. Aspidium, Sw. and Willd. 

 Aspidium caudatum, ^w. Syn. Fil. p. 55. It Hid. Tectaria, 

 Cav. Athyrium, Pr. A. Azoricum, Fee. Asplenium Aitoni, 

 yS axillare, Moore, I. c. 



Hal). Madeira, Canary Islands, and the Azores, Masson and others. — All my 

 specimens have come to me under the name of " umbrosum," and I have seen no 

 native ones that I could consider in any way distinct, yet very able botanists 

 have maintained the Aspl. aaillare as a different species, but none of the de- 

 scriptions given nor the figures referred to appear to sanction such a distinction. 

 It is true the plant cultivated in the Royal Gardens as A. a.rillare is larger, more 

 distantly pinnated, and has the frond more drooping at the extremity, and has 

 more obtuse pinnules, but these are characters which will hardly constitute 

 specific difference. Moore, indeed, unites the two, but makes a var, j3 of A. 

 axillare, without any definition. This is the type of Mr. Brown's Allantodia, a 

 name suggested, I have heard that distinguished man say, by Uryander, from the 

 peculiar form of the fructification. The involucre is nearly cylindrical, " e vena 

 lateraliter ortum, eique utroque margine insertum." I cannot distinguish that 

 mode of insertion, but it is certain that besides opening at the inner margin, 

 often in a very broken and irregular manner, it bursts equally and irregularly in 

 the middle, though this seems to me due to the extremely fragile texture of the 

 involucre, rather than to any peculiar organization. 



241. A. (Athyrium) anstrale, Brack.; "fronds bipinnate 

 deltoid membranaceous flaccid, pinnules pinnatifid attenuated 

 at the apex, lobes oblong obtuse inciso-serrate plurisorous, 

 involucres oblong." — Broivn. Brack. Fil. U. St. Expl. Exp. 

 p. 173. Moore, Ind. Fil. p. 115. Allantodia australis and 

 A. tenera, Br. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. p. 149. Asplenium 

 Brownii, J. Sm. Hook. fil. Fl. N. Zeal. ii. p. 36. Fl. Tasm. 

 ii. p. 147. Hook. Ic. PL p. 978. Metten. FiL Hort. Lips. 

 p. 79- Asplen. p. 192. Asplenium assimile, Endl. Prodr. 

 FL Norf. p. 30. Asplenium spectabile, WaU. Cat. n. 237. 



