POLYPODIUM, § PIIKGOI'TEIIIS. 273 



Ilab. Van Uiemcn's Land, Labillardiere ; since found very nljundantly there 

 and in the south and east of Australia, from Victoria to Moreton Bay, Brown, 

 Mueller, and others. New Zealand, north arid middle island, as far south as 

 Ilouraki Gulf and Acheron {Lyall). Lord Auckland's group, //o&A-. ^7. Norfolk 

 Island, Bauer. Dr. V. T/tonison. India, very abundant, especially in Himalaya, 

 etc., Wallich (1'. marginale, ]] all. Cat. n. 3'22, Asjjid. marginatum, n. 391, and 

 Aspid. divisum, >i. 31)3). Java {]\Iiquel), De Vriese and Teijsmann, n. \\, AV3, 

 and 481, Tlios. Lobb, Jt. 2C1. China, Chusan, Alexander. Ceylon, Mrs. Genl. 

 Walker. South America: Chili, Puejypig, Cuminy, n. 203, 149, 035, Bridges, n. 

 552, P/iilippi (who, as well as Bridges and Bertero, considers it identical with Polyp, 

 spectabile of Kaulfuss, certainly a Chilian ])lant, but certainly not the Plieyopt. 

 speclabilis of Fee, which Mettenius considers the plant of Kaulfuss, see ]>. 2o9), 

 Gillies; Cliiloe, Capt. I'h. King; Valdivia, Bridges, n. 813; Juan Fernandez, 

 Bertero ("Pol. spectabile"), n. 1G()4, Curniny, n. 1348; Ecuador, Jameson, 

 Spruce, H. 5716 (very large, secondary piniiic pinnatifid rather than pinnate, seg- 

 ments less pinnatifid) ; Peru, Pasco, Matheivs, Crucksliaiiks (Pol. fulvescens. 

 Hook, and Or ev.). St. Helena, Cuminy, n. 1348 and 433, Jlook. ft., Nuttall, 

 Lefroy. Tristan d'Acunha, Tliouars, Cartnichael. Bourbon {ex Herb. Mus. 

 Par.). Fernando Po, Barter, Maim. — Perhaps no Fern has been so generally mis- 

 understood as the present, both in regard to genus and to the limits of the species; 

 and this is jiartly owing to its being very variable, both in size and texture, and to 

 the close proximity of the sori to the margin of the pinnules, and the frecjuent 

 inflection of the lobes of those pinnules, which give the appearance of an involucre 

 of a Cheilanthes or Uypolepis, to which also may be added the wide extent of 

 geographical distribution. Lai)illar(iiere has well described and well figured the 

 plant ; yet I have myself often found it diflicult to distinguish between some 

 forms of Uypolepis hostilis, Kze., and H. pteroides, "Mca., especially //. Pur • 

 dieana. Hook. In the localities I have here given, taken exclusively from speci- 

 mens in my own herbarium, 1 have been as careful as possible to exclude any 

 forms which showed the smallest trace of a true involucre ; yet I am far from 

 satisfied with my decisions. 



In bringing to a close this portion of my labours which treat of the Polypodia 

 which have free veins, I must entreat indulgence for its many imperfections, es- 

 pecially in what concerns the decompound species. There are difficulties occa- 

 sioned by variations common to Ferns in general, to which must be added those 

 peculiar to specimens of large size, such as are manifest in ditierent parts of the 

 same specimen ; and last, and not least, the possibility that our plant may, in 

 some stages of its progress to maturity, be possessed of involucres, j)roving it to 

 be not Polypodiaceous, but Aspidiaceous. Here, as elsewhere, 1 have excluded 

 not a few doubtful species, of my own among the rest. 



N.B. — T/iefrsf part of the next Volume will commence with the species of Poly - 

 podium which have conniceni or anaslomoniiiy veins. 



