15 



in the centre, pinna; obtuse, lower ones pinnate at the base 

 segments mucronate, mucro short thick, upper pin nee sub- 

 rhomboid auricled above crenulate mucronate at the apex." 

 Polystichum viviparum, Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 280 ; Gme Mem. 

 Foug. p. 21. t. 3./. 3. Aspid. Metten. Aspid. p. 44. P. tra- 

 pezoides, yS, Moore, Tnd. Fil. p. 108 [name only). 



Hal). Cuba, Linden, n. 1742. Jamaica, Purdie. — I had occasion to remark 

 in the ' Filices Exoticc,' under J.tpid. (Polystichum) triangtilnm, Sw., that it 

 would he no enviable task for any one to undertake to describe the different 

 exotic kinds of the Polystichiun-^von\> of Aspidium. I now feel very sensibly 

 the truth of that statement. M. Fee lias given a faithful representation of this 

 Fern, and I have copied his correct specific character ; but different as this form 

 assuredly is from the ordinary form of Aspid. triangxdum, my var. y, I am quite 

 disposed to consider it as an intermediate state ; in short, passing by its more 

 compound (partially bipinnate) into the ubiquitous and polymorphous Aspid. acu- 

 leatum. (See observations on a form of our Aspidiiim aculeatum, under the S. Ame- 

 rican (West Indian) localities from Cuba.) Mr. Moore refers Fee's viviparum to 

 his P. trapezioides : but what his frapezioides is we are not informed. The speci- 

 men which I believe to be Swartz's trapezioides, he has, and rightly too, referred 

 to triangulum. 



18. A. (Polystichum) tridens, Moore, MSS. ; caudex short 

 erect clothed with conspicuous intensely ebeneous-black 

 scales with brown margins often cihated, stipites 3-6 inches 

 long tufted fusco-paleaceous below, fronds G-12 inches long 

 oblong-lanceolate coriaceous acuminate, pinnoe 1 inch long 

 deeply tripartite (rarely trifoliolate) the cuneate base ta})er- 

 ing into a petiole, segments (or pinnules) linear-lanceolate 

 acuminate spinulose the margin subspinuloso-serrate, upper- 

 most pinnules linear-lanceolate and nearly entire, veins almost 

 obsolete, sori in two rows submarginal, involucres peltate pedi- 

 cellate fringed. (Tab. CCXV.) — Polystichum tridens, Moore, 

 MS. in Herb. Hook. 



Hab. Jamaica, rare ; nearWoburn Lawn, Port Royal, P«rrf/e, 1840. ArntillvGap, 

 Blue Mountains, elev. 3000 ft., TVi/son — Unwilling as I am to sanction a specific 

 name written in a private herbarium, without any character or description, the 

 present one is too appropriate to be rejected. It will be seen by our figure, how 

 extremely unlike it is to any known Polystichum ; yet upon one of my specimens 

 of P. triangulum, 13, a considerable number of pinna; are regularly trifurcate, 

 though broader and shorter than these. I cannot think it possible it can be an 

 abnormal form of that variable plant. My several specimens of this, indeed, from 

 two different collectors are very uniform. 



19. A. (Polystichum) tripteron, Kze. ; caudex short erect 

 paleaceous with brown ovate scales, stipites tufted a span to 

 a foot high scaly below and as well as the rachis stramineous 

 glossy, fronds 1-1^ foot long submcmbranaceous flaccid 



