162 MENISCI UM. 



free simple or forked. — Caudex erect, arborescent. Fronds 

 pinnated. Bowringia, Hook, olim, not Benth. and Champ. 



An Indian Fern with an arborescent trunk, with the venation of Woodivardia 

 and gramniitidoid sori, which however often become confluent and more or less 

 acrostichoid. 



1, B. insignis, Hook. Kew Gard. Misc. ix. p. .354 ; Moore, 

 Ind. Fil. ; Benth. Fl. Hongk. p. 460.— Bowringia, Hook.Keiv 

 Gard. Misc. v. p. 2.3. /. 2. Hook. Fil. Exot. t. 38. 



Hab. Hongkong, Sir J. Bovn-inff, J. C. Braine, Esq., Dr. Harland, and others. 

 Eastern Bengal, Khasya, alt. 4000 feet. Hooker fil. and Tho7^tson.—l\\\s remark- 

 able fern lias a tree-like stem or caudex as thick as a man's arm, clotlied with 

 shaggy, dark-brown or ferruginous, long subulato-lanceolate scales. Stipites 

 stout, short, scarcely a span long. Fronds not unlike those of a Lomaria, firm- 

 coriaceous, bright-green, pinnated or occasionally below partially bipinnated. 

 Pinnse very numerous, close-placed, horizontal, 5-6 inches long, 4 lines broad, 

 from a cordate base, linear-oblong, gradually and finely acuminated, minutely 

 serrated. The sori are remarkable, confined to the costal arches or also running 

 up, the simple veins halfway or more towards the margin, often becoming con- 

 fluent. At present the only localities known are those above given. 



6. Meniscium, Schreb. 



(Hook. Gen. tab. XL.) 



Sori oblong or linear or sometimes orbicular and geminate, 

 arising from the transverse connivent veinlets. Involucre 0. 

 Veins or costules pinnated from the costa ; veinlets numerous, 

 the opposite ones uniting in an arc or angle and sending out 

 from that angle a free or continuous veinlet. — Fronds simple 

 or pinnated. Too nearly allied to some species of Goniopteris 

 among Polypodieee. 



1. M. simplex, Hook.; caudex long creeping paleaceous, 

 stipites distant stramineous 3-5 inches long of the sterile, a 

 span to a foot long of the fertile fronds, pubescent, fronds 

 simple subdimorphous firm-membranaceous subcoriaceous ; 

 sterile ones 6-8 inches long and 1^-2 inches broad; fertile 

 ones always much smaller; both are simple oblongo-ovate 

 acuminate sinuato-dentate cordate and hastate at the base 

 with a blunt apex, costa and venation pilose, transverse 

 veins connecting the costules 8-10 the prolonged interme- 

 diate vein continuous in the sterile frond, generally short 

 and free in the fertile one, sori globose or oblong sometimes 

 continued up the free veinlet. — Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. \. 

 p. 194. t. 11, Keiv Gard. Misc. ix. p. 834, Fit. Exot. t. 83. 

 Benth. Fl. Hongk. p. 457- 



