NEPIIRODIUM, § EUNEPHRODIUM. 7^ 



from two authentiG sources: 1. copious and fine specimens from Dr. Wallich, 

 by whom it has l)een largely distributed with the name oi Aspid. multijugum ; and 

 2. two pinniu from Dr. lUuine, as his published species, Aspid. exlensum, and to 

 this latter name I am l)ound to give the preference. Fine a plant as it is, it is 

 ditticult, save in its larger and more luxuriant growth, the elongated and narrower 

 pinnae and segments, to distinguish it from Anp. molle. The venation is the same, 

 and I fear many intermediate forms exist. Some, and indeed many, specimens 

 have the sori quite confined to the segments, and then a good deal resembling 

 Aspid. terminans, Wall., with all the disk free from sori ; at other times the sori 

 extend below the segments ; and in not a few samples the very lowest veinlets 

 (the united ones) are soriferous, so that the whole disk is fructiferous. In general, 

 the more copious the fructifications the more contracted the pinnae and segments. 

 — Many will perhai)s be surprised that I have introduced the Nephrod. caudicula- 

 tum of Presl, and J. Sm., and Mettenius, but I really have no choice; I must 

 either place it here, or with Asp. molle. The original authority for this is a 

 large Fern from the Mauritius, Sieber, Syn. Fil. n. 47, which is a dilated and 

 flaccid form of the present species, and precisely agrees with Blume's Asp. hete- 

 rocarpum, which I have ))laced under A. molle, and which I believe to be a safe 

 place for it. My authority for the other specimens of caudiculatum is Mr. J. 

 Smith, than whom few botanists have a keener eye for distinguishing species 

 among Ferns. I possess specimens he has brought under that name from Cu- 

 ming's Philippine Island plants, of these n. 10 and one of the number 338 are 

 what I consider typical of A. extensum ; another, n. 338, and n.'84, has a more 

 or less acuminated base to the pinnae and lobes ; my specimens are neither of 

 them fertile. My n. 317 and one numbered 83 (Luzon, Cuming), not noticed by 

 Smith, have a very di\S&vtnt prima facie appearance (but they are evidently young 

 though fertile), and they have the base of the pinnae subhastate, with a rather 

 acute auricle above and a short rounded lobe below, and the lobes at the margin 

 short, rather coarsely serrated than lobed. I suspect the truth to l)e that these, 

 and not a few others bearing ditferent specific names, would be best united with A. 

 molle. Biackenridge's Nephrod. Hudsonianumiaay, I think, be safely referred here. 



22. N. (Eunephrodium) terminans, J. Sm.; caudex creep- 

 ing scaly, stipes 1-2 feet long a little scaly at the base, 

 frond about the same length submembranaceous oblong 

 or ovato-oblong acuminate pinnated, terminal pinna gene- 

 rally free but often deeply pinnatilid, lateral pinnoe 4-6-8 

 inches long patent scarcely petiolate from a broad (or some- 

 times contracted) base linear-oblong finely acuminated pin- 

 natifid about halfway down towards the costa with numerous 

 subovate rather acute slightly falcate segments, lowest pair 

 of veinlets united below the sinuses, sori confined to the 

 segments and often to the apex of the segments rarely ex- 

 tending below the sinuses, involucres orbicular rcniform. — 

 Aspidium terminans, IVall. Cat. n. 386. Kze.in LinncBa,x\m. 

 p. 230. Nephrodium Cumingii, J. Sm. in Hook. Joura. Bot. 

 iii. p. 411. N. conioneuron. Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 308. Mctten. 

 Aspid. p. 102. Lastrea Malaccensis, 7V. Epim. Bot. p. 35 

 {fide Metten.). Aspid. Schwenkii, j3, Bl. in Herb. Hook. 

 Aspid. unitum, Hook, et Am. Bot. of Beech. Voij. 



VOL. IV. L 



