132 NEPHRODIUM, § LASTREA. 



compound and petiolate, lowest pair the largest half-ovate acu- 

 minate, their lowest basal pinnrc the longest and deflexed, se- 

 condary pinnee and pinnules resembling the middle pinnae 

 similarly pinnatilid with oblong subacute and slightly falcate 

 large spreading lobes often an inch long and j of an inch 

 wide, veins pinnated all free rarely a few irregularly anasto- 

 mosing, veinlets simple or forked, sori in general forming 

 a single series close to and chiefly upon the lobes or seg- 

 ments rarely on the disk and then scattered, involucres ra- 

 ther small reniformi-cordate (some appear to be orbicular 

 and peltate). (Tab. CCLXI.) — Pr. Relifj. Hcenk. p. 36. t. 5. 

 f. 3 [small, but accurate). Aspidium, Metten. Aspid. p. 113. 

 Lastrea, Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 76. /. Sm. in Hook. Bot. Jovrn. 

 iii. p. 412. Aspidium fuscipes, Wall. Cat. n. 361 (1827). 

 Aspid. sagenioides, Metten. Aspid. p. 269. 



Hal). Malay Peninsula and Archipelago : Tenasserim, Wallich ,- Moulmein, 

 Parish, n. 144 ; Malay Islands, Hcenke, n. 36, 249, and 354, Falconer ; Chitta- 

 gong, Hooker fil. and Thomson, n. 224 rf; Assam, Khasya, Boutan, Sylhet, Griffith, 

 Hooker fil. and Thomson; Nilghiri, Be^fJome, n. 119, Simons, Booth; Ceylon, 

 very abundant, Mrs. Gent. Walker, Gardner, 1357. — It is remarkable that this 

 plant, ai)parently common in Eastern India, distributed by Dr. AVallich, under 

 the name here adopted, thirty-five years ago, should be so little known to bota- 

 nists. It is assuredly the A^. membranifolia of Presl, and ecjuaily, I think, the 

 Jspid. sagenioides, i\Ietten. Its habit is indeed so completely tbat of iht Sagenia- 

 group of Enaspidium, that it may have been mistaken for some of the forms of 

 Aspidium cicutarinm (no. Gl of our Aspidium, p. 48, or of the next following, 

 A.giganteum, under whicii I have briefly noticed the ])resent one, and which I then 

 supposed might have been referable to A. Gardnerianum, Mettenius. It does 

 not, however, suiticiently accord with tbat author's description). If the nature of 

 the venation is at all to be depended upon, this Fern must be referred to the lastreoid 

 section of Nephrodium, rather than to the sagenioid-group of Aspidium. 



122. N. (Lastrea) puiywascens, Hook. ; caudex short 

 erect stout densely rooting below, paleaceous with copious 

 ovate acuminate scales above, stipites tufted a span to 1-2 

 feet long more or less scaly as is the rachis, fronds 1-H foot 

 long subcoriaceous ovate acuminate bi-tripinnate, primary 

 pinnae 3-5-6 inches long distant much petiolate ovate or ob- 

 long-acuminate, secondary ones ovate or ovato-oblong obtuse 

 petiolate those above the middle of the frond subobliquely 

 rhomljoid cuneate at the base all more or less pinnatifid es- 

 pecially in the lower half with rounded obtuse entire lobes, 

 superior basal segment generally the largest hence subauri- 

 culate, ultimate pinnules (when tripinnate) of the same cha- 

 racter, veinlets simple or mostly forked, sori rather irregular 

 nearer the costule than the margin, involucres rather large 



