36 ASPIDIUM, § CYCLODIUM. 



sessile obliquely ovate obtuse decurrent at the base pinnatifid 

 chiefly at the superior margin or again pinnate, ultimate 

 pinnae or segments small short obtuse or acute, veins solitary 

 or forked, sori dorsal one near the base of the lobe or pin- 

 nule, involucres peltate. — Metteii. Fil. Lechl. ChiL et Per. 

 p. 20. t.S.ff. 14-17. 



Hab. Peru, watercourses ; Sichahue, Cordill. de Ranco, LecMer, n. 30G0. — A 

 rare and extremely well-marked species, of which portions are well represented 

 by Mettenius, I.e. The fronds are more compound than in A spid. melanochlami/s, 

 which is perhaps its nearest ally. 



44. A. (Polystichum) fceniculaceum, Hook.; caudex stout 

 creeping densely clothed with tawny satiny ovate-acuminate 

 paleaceous scales, stipites a span to a foot long stout below 

 and there paleaceous like the caudex, fronds pergamentaceous 

 glossy translucent when fresh 1-2 feet and more long ob- 

 long-ovate acuminate supradecompoundly pinnate, primary 

 pinnae (inferior ones) from 4 inches to almost a foot long 

 long-petioled ovate finely acuminate, secondary ones 1-3 

 inches long also petioled, these are broken up into a succes- 

 sion of smaller and lesser pinnte or pinnules and all finely cut 

 into linear acute o])scurely costate segments simple or once 

 or twice forked or having a lateral short tooth which ge- 

 nerally bears the solitary rather small sorus, sori globose as 

 broad as the segment or tooth, involucres small dark-brown 

 convex peltate of a subcoriaceous texture, rachises with a few 

 scattered flexuose setae. (Tab. CCXXXVII.) 



Hab, North-eastern India: Chola, Sikkim, alt. 8-10,000 ieet, Hook. fil. and 

 Thomson, n. 274. — This is perhaps the most remarkable of all the polystichoid 

 Asjndia, and one of the most elegant, if the plant be in its normal state. Mr. Moore 

 throws some doubts on this by naming Dr. Hooker's specimens as "■ Lastrca 

 {PolysticMim, nobis) aristata, y dissecta" while Mr. J. Smith considers them as 

 a variety of the West Indian Aspidlum deniiculatum, Sw. In regard to the first 

 of these opinions, the fronds have not the outline of that species (arintatum), and 

 unless I could see intermediate states in the form of the pinnas and pinnules, I 

 can hardly credit such a transformation. All Dr. Hooker's numerous specimens 

 are very uniform in the finely cut fronds, and nearly all have copious fructifica- 

 tion. As to its being the West Indian A. denticulatum, I am not prepared to agree 

 to sucli a union, but there certainly is a very common form of the latter plant 

 which is very closely allied to it. 



§ Cyclodium. — Primary veins pljinated, opposite branches uniting at an angle 

 and sending out a free veinlet in the areole above ; pinnae of the fertile frond 

 contracted. (Hook. Gen. Fil. Tab. XLIX. C.) 



45. A. (Cyclodium) mewwcioiWe*, Willd. ; caudex stout as- 

 cendant or creeping scaly, stipites stout glossy brown 1-2 



