27(3 ACTIMOPTERIS. 



others. Acropteris, Fee, Gen. t. 6 A. f. 2. Pteris, Hook, et 

 Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 8. Metten.) 



Sori involucrate, linear, much elongated, sub marginal. 

 Involucre plane, membranaceous, firm, attached just within 

 the margin, one on each side the narrow segments of the frond 

 opening towards the costa. Receptacle filiform, in the axis of 

 the involucre. — A small, JiursJi, rir/id, tufted Fern of India 

 and Africa. Caudex small, suby/obose, rooting. IStipites 

 dense, deciduoushj paleaceous. Fronds snbdimorjjhovs, forked, 

 once or several times dichotomous and jlabellate. Segments 

 linear or subulate, fertile ones more elongated than the sterile. 

 Costa indistinct. \ ems, few and nearly parallel with the costa. 



A solitary species, and a Fern perfectly mi gmeris. Even its ))lace in the Fern 

 arrangrement is floubtful. Link says : " Bleclmo et Lomarm proxiniuin est 

 genus." Dr. Greville and myself had long a2;o referred it to Pteris ; and thorc 

 the accurate Mettenius places it. The frond is in no way foliaceous, but rachi- 

 fonn in its divisions; and, before expansion, it is, as it were, refracted (not 

 circinate) upon the stipes, and its ap])earance then, and even when fully deve- 

 loped, very much like some small Chair.xrops among the Palms. 



1. Acr. radiata. Link, Fil. Sp. Hart. Berol. p. 80. Hook. 

 Ic. Fil. I. c. Asplenium radiatum, Konig. Acrostichum 

 australe, Vahl, Symbol, i. p. 84. t. 25. Acrostichum dicho- 

 tomum, Forsk. F. jEgypt. Arab. p. 184. Acropteris radiata, 

 Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 76. Pteris, Metten. Fil. Hort. Lips. p. 53. 

 Blechnum flabellatum, Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 103. — Var. /9. 

 australis ; segments of the fronds much elongated fewer 

 scarcely radiating or flabelliform their apices mostly entire su- 

 bulate. Hook. Ic. PL t. 976. Actiniopteris australis, Link, Fil. 

 Hort. Berol. p. 80. Asplenium, 8io. Syn. Fil. p. 76 and p. 258. 

 /, 3. IVilld. Sp. PI. V. p. 308. Acrostichum, Linn. Suppl. 

 p. 444. Pteris, Hook, et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 8. Metten. Fil. 

 Hort. Lips. p. 53. Blechnum flabellatum, Pr. Tent. Pterid. 

 p. 103. 



Ilab. Arabia, Forskal. Upper Egypt and Cordofan, Kotschy. South Africa, 

 Macalisberg, Burke, in Ilerh. Nostr. Madagascar, Bouri)on {Swartz), Car- 

 mtchael. Scinde, Stocks. Bombay, Dr. Gibson. Old walls, Madras, common, 

 Dr. IFiffht, n. 109; Gid. Thomson. Northern India, Edyivorfh. Moradal)ad, 

 Dr. T. Thomson. Agra, and Sikaan in Ava, TJ'allich, Cat. n. 137. — Var. ;8. aus- 

 tralis. Mauritius and Bourbon, Sonnerat, Carmichael, and others. Schoata, 

 near Enderder, Abyssinia, Schimper, n. 577. — It is only the result of an examina- 

 tion of extensive suites of specimens that I venture to consider what have 

 hitherto been considered to constitute two species, are in reality only one ; for 

 there seem to be all intermediate grades. 



