ASPIDIUM, § POLYSTICHUM. 23 



serratures with long soft hair-like points, sori chiefly on the 

 superior half of the frond in two rows near the costule, 

 involucres peltate entire membranaceous. (Tab. CCXXIII.) 

 — Aspid. I^rescottianum, U'a//. (Jut. n. 363. Metten. Aspid. 

 p. 48. Polj' podium V%e\\do-\-iQ\\c\\\t\s,Jacquemont, M,SS. in 

 Herb. Hook. — ^ ; frond hipinnate. 



Hah. Kuniaon, Wallich. Inhabiting tlie whole range of Himalaya from the 

 extreme west, to Bhotan in the east; elev. 10-12,000 feet, Jac(iUL'mont, n. 12, 

 73, 7G, 77, Edr/irorfh, Straclicy and Winterbuttom, Hooker Jil. and Thomson, 

 Griffith. — A well marked species in the soft paleaceo-fetaceous clothing, in the 

 very narrow and elongato-lanceolate flaccid fronds, and above all in tlie very long 

 hair-like ])oints to the sharp serratures. It seems iiecidiar to northern India, but 

 there, apparently at great elevations, has been detected throughout the whole 

 range of the Himalayas. 



24. A. (Polystichutn) Richardl ; caudex short thick scaly, 

 stipites tufted ^-l foot long hirsuto-paleaceous, scales mixed 

 with larger and almost black deciduous ones, fronds of the 

 same length as the stipes, very rigid and coriaceous (brown 

 when dry) oblong-ovate suddeidy and finely acuminate sub- 

 furfuraceous beneath with minute subulate scales ciliated at 

 their broad base, pinnate (rarely subbipinnate), pinna) 2-3 

 inches long petiolate close and compact lowest 2-3 pair only 

 rather distant lanceolate finely acuminate deeply ])innatifid 

 nearly to the costa (inferior ones sometimes free but decurrent 

 at the base), segments lanceolate numerous close-placed mu- 

 cronato-acuminate the margin entire or obsoletely crenate 

 rather than serrated, acuminated apices of the fronds and 

 pinnsR pungently and sharply serrated, sori in two rows on 

 each segment, involucres orbicular, main rachis subulato-pa- 

 leaceous beneath with blackish scales. (Tab. CCXXII.) — 

 Aspid. aristatum, var.,Hook. Fl. N. Zeal. p. 37 [in part) ; and 

 f. 5. of t. 78, corresponds ivith a segment of our ])layit ; and Dr. 

 Hooker on our specimens here figured, has written "Aspid. 

 coriaceum, var. acutidentatum, Ach. Rich. N. Zeal. p. 10." 



Hah. New Zealand; Northern \i\a.w\, D' Urville ; Sides of cliffs, Tangururu 

 Bay, Colenso ; rocky shores of an island in the Wyran River, Hook. fil. — I have 

 in my remarks uiifler Aitjjid. aculeatum, observed that Dr. Hooker's jjrincipal 

 figure of his aristatum of New Zealand, is not that of Swartz and Schkuhr, i)ut 

 what we consider a form of A. aculeatum. With that he includes the plant I 

 liere describe and figure, whose whole asjiect and character are so unlike both 

 aristatum and aculeatum, that Richard considered it a very sliarply toothed var. 

 of Aspid. coriaceum, but from that also it is widely distinct. If not a peculiar 

 species, it must be united, as Ur. Hooker has done, with one of the forms of 

 A. aculeattim ,- and there are specimens in our herbarium which almost connect 

 it with a broad-lobed form of that species : thus adding one more to the aber- 

 rant forms of A. aculeatum. 



