Moore), sed eliaracteribus al)miile dibtinctum." It has notliing of the usual habit 

 of Po/i/n/ichum, and may very well rank next the following species, Jspid. mela- 

 nochlainijs. In hoth of these my specimens possess the involucre of Polystichum. 

 The present species is almost black when dry. 



42. A. (Polystichum) melanochlumySy Fee ; caudex stout 

 suberect clothed with silky long subulate purplish -brown 

 soft membranaceous scales, stipites tufted (?) a span to a foot 

 long crinite with long spreacUng setaceous scales such as 

 clothe the caudex but shorter and which appear on the ra- 

 chises too, fronds 1^-1 foot long oblong remotely bipinnate 

 membranaceous green when dry, primary pinnae 4-5 inches 

 long oblong-acuminate sessile adnate and subdecurrent, pin- 

 nules about an inch long obtuse often broadest u])wards 

 lobato-pinnatifid, lowest small obtuse quite entire moiiosorous 

 rarely disorous, costules with minute bullate scales Ijeneath, 

 veins few pinnate, sori often confined to two or three of the 

 lower lobes sometimes on all, involucre orbicular black in the 

 centre the margin castaneous. (Tab. CCXXXIII.-.B.) — 

 Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 294. Aspidium (Lastrea) melanostictum, 

 Eaton, Fil. Wright, et Fendl. p. 209 (w//o also quotes as sijn. 

 A. melanochlamys, Fee). Lastrea melanochlamys, Moore. 



Ilab. Cuba, Mont Liban, Linden, n. 1865, in Herb. Nostr. Eastern Cuba, 

 near the town of Monte Verde, C. Wright. — Fee well observes of this : " Filix 

 squamosa, distinctissima, partitionibus omnibus remotis, indusio centro nigres- 

 cente, in anibitu rufesceute notata." That its near affinity is with the preceding 

 is however quite certain ; but I think Mr. Eatron is in error in considering them 

 the same. A. melanostictum is a native of Mexico, of large dimensions, with 

 crowded pinnse and pinnules, black when dry, with much larger and toothed or 

 incised segments, with several sori on a segment: and though it is true we are 

 not acquainted with the stipes so as to say if that is densely crinite as in the pre- 

 sent species, yet the entire absence of the same clotliing on the upper part of the 

 stipes and on the rachises, would lead to the conclusion that the whole plant was 

 free from them. Here the soft hair-like scales are frequent on the rachises. 



43. A. (Polystichum) multijidum, Mett. ; caudex rol)ust 

 horizontal densely clothed with long subulate dark ferruginous 

 scales, stipites a span to a foot long stout, at the very base 

 clothed with the same ferruginous scales, higher up with 

 these are mixed very large broad-ovate intensely black firm 

 scales subulate at the point castaneous at the margin full J 

 of an inch long, the rest of the stipes and the very stout ra- 

 chises are almost shaggy with coj)ious narrow-subulate tawny 

 scales mixed with the black but of a smaller size, fronds H-2 

 feet long obU)ng-lanceolate subcoriaceo-membranaceous 3- 

 subquadripinnalc, primary pinucC about 4 inches long hori- 

 zontal oblong acuminate sessile, secondary and tertiary ones 



