37 



and more feet long clothed with brown paleaceous scales at 

 the base, fronds 2-3 feet long olilong coriaceous pinnated, 

 pinncc numerous, terminal one similar to the rest; sterile ones 

 oblong acuminate unequallj'^ and obtusely cuneate at the 

 base subsessile entire or sinuate or crenated G-7 inches long ; 

 fertile ones smaller and much narrower oblong-lanceolate 

 entire or sinuato-dentate. — Willd. Sp. PL v. p. 218. Kaulf. 

 Metten. Aspid. p. 32. Cyclodium, Fr. Tent. Pterid. p. 85. 

 t. 2. /. 20. Epimel. Bot. p. 59. Moore, Ind. Fil. p. 275. 

 Cyclodium confertum, Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 85. Epimel. Bot. 

 p. 59. Aspidium, Klfs. En. Fil. p. 232 [excluding the Indian 

 plant). Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 121 {excellent, but incom- 

 plete in the venation). Metten. Aspid. p. 32. Aspidium 

 Hookeri, Kl. in Linmea, xx. p. 364. Soromanes integrifolia, 

 Fee, Acrost. p. 82. t. 42 [sterile frond only) . 



llab. Tropical America, chiefly however in Brazil and Guiana, all collectors, 

 and extending as far westward as Tarapota, Eastern Peru, Spruce, n. 473G and 

 4089. From Brazil we possess fine specimens from Uaupes, n. 2776 ; Para, 

 Sprtcce, n. 25, 26, (one specimen with the fertile pinna; not contracted,) Gard- 

 ner, Milne ; IWmo'is, Morica7id (fertile and sterile pinna; on the same frond), 

 Guiana, Le Prieur ; Surinam, yro»« Herb. Mlquel, fertile pinnae pinnatifido-dentate, 

 Sagot, n. 122, App in, n. 160, 164, and 106, sn])crior pinna; contracted in the 

 upper half only, and there fertile; Berbice, Schomburyk, n. 316 ; Trinidad, Pur- 

 die. — A very fine and well marked species. Kaulfuss is probably incorrect in refer- 

 ring to this A. meniscioidcs, a Fern of Tranquebar and of the island of Guahan, 

 especially when he says of it that the lowest pinna; are " bifid." He probably 

 quite misunderstood Willdenow's plant, and thence was led to make a distinct 

 species of the Cayenne plant, his A. confertum. The venation is variable, and 

 the united branchlets or venules occasionally are prolonged into a free veinlet, 

 which sometimes extends to the union of the pair above, and sometimes it is 

 altogether wanting ; the primary veins are stouter and more horizontal in the 

 fertile than in the sterile pinnae. 



Obs. Cyclodium Cumingianum, Moore {Anisacampium, Pr., Asjndium Otaria, 

 Kze. in Metten., Gonopteris aristata, Fee), having the involucre of Nephrodium, 

 Rich. Br., I place it in that genus, the venation is that of Nephrodium, Schott, 

 § Pleocnemia. Cyclodium acrostichoides, J. Sm., also belongs to the Nephro- 

 <//(««-group. Cyclodium heterodon of Brazil {Aspid., Schrad.) is unknown to 

 me. Moore refers it to Polystichum in his ' Index Filicum,' \^. 93, as Presl had 

 done in his Epim., but he places it in Cyclodium at p. 275 of the same work. 

 May it not be our Aspidium (Cyrtomium) abbreviatuin ? 



§ Cyrtomium. — Primary veins pinnated; Ike branches or veinlets more or less 

 united, forming acute angles, often quite free; sori dorsal on the free or united 

 veins ; fronds sterile and fertile uniform or nearly so. Jl'hen the venation is 

 all free, as in some specimens of this section, it does not differ from § Polysti- 

 chum. 



46. A. (Cyrtomium) abbreviatuin, Schrad.; caudex creeping 

 scaly at the extremity with brown su])ulate scales, sti[)itcs 

 distant pale brown a little scaly at the basc^ fronds i-2 feet 



