ACROSTICIIUM, § LOMARIOPSIS. 243 



enridge; the latter also gives Samoa. Singapore (iy. /«</<?«», Foe), Cochincliiiia 

 {L. Cochmchinensis, Fee), IJourbon, Mauritius, Madagascar, etc. — Besides the 

 variations common to Ferns in general, this plant is extremely apt to take ah- 

 normal forms, which have given rise to a Lomariopsis ludens, L. varia/jilis, where 

 the elongated caudex hears fronds a span and more long, or simple or jjinnatifid 

 at the hase, or wholly pinnatifid, or pinna; with the small pinnules piniiatitid. 

 But the most remarkahle ahnormal state apparently helonging to this species (for 

 my specimen was received without name and hearing no separate ticket) has the 

 caudex terete, straight, thick as a goose-quill, heset with sharp, very pungent 

 spines, and hearing small, sessile, ovale fronds, 3 inches long, very compound, 

 closely tripinuate, the ultimate pinnules little more than ,1 a line long and cu- 

 neate ; this is considered to he the Lomnria aculeata, Bl., and is certainly 

 the Lomariopsis spinencens. Fee, Acrost. p. 71. t. 33. f. 1, which that author 

 keeps distinct from L. Smit/iii. But he adds the portion of a caudex of L. 

 Smifhii, which is spinous and hears a normal frond and an ahnormal one, which 

 is only hipinuate, so that I strongly suspect hoth helong to one ami the same 

 plant. J. Smith seems to refer these to StenocMcena scaiidens (see that plant at 

 p. 249). My specimen of L. Smithii is a very perfect or normal one, quite like 

 the South American L. sorbifoUa, except that the veins are more distant. Indeed, 

 Mr. J. Smith considered it to he identical with the Lomaria lonyifoUa of Kaul- 

 fuss, which is generally united hy authors with sorbifoUa. 



SteiiochUma variabilis, of Brack. Fil. U. S. Expl. Exp. p. 78. t. 11, from the 

 Ovalau and the Fiji Islands, is, as I stated under Lomaria fiUformis (supra, vol. 

 iii. p. 33), an ahnormal state of that plant. What is Lomariopsis Novx-Cale- 

 donicB, Mctten. Fil. Nov. Caled. p. 4, of which he says, " paleis rhizomalis cum 

 L. Smithii, Fee, congruit, a qua vero directione obliqua nervorum recedit ; L. 

 leptocarpa. Fee {Stenochlcuna variabilis. Brack.), nervatura congruente proxima, 

 paleis sulicoriaceis pallide rufescentihus oblongo-lanceolatis, pinnis fertilihus con- 

 tractis linearibus, utrinque ad costam receptaculum elevatum more Polyboirym 

 gerentihus, diversa est " .■' 



96. A. (Lomariopsis) buxifoUum, Kze. ; caudex flexuose 

 scandent clothed with narrow-lanceolate acuminated scales, 

 fronds (6 inches long on short stipites) pinnated, pinnae 

 10-14 pairs (^ an inch long) ; sterile ones oval or obovate 

 sessile slightly oblique at the base terminal one larger acumi- 

 nate ; fertile pinna3 linear or linear-spathulate sessile remote. 

 — Kze. in Sch/c. Fil. p. l^l.t. 72. Lomariopsis, Fee, Acrost. 

 p. 09. 



Ilah. Madagascar, Gondot, Meller, in Kerb. nostr.-—\i is more than possible 

 that this may be a dwarfed or starved form of A.sorbifolium ; indeed, my speci- 

 mens, sterile ones it is true, from Dr. Meller are accompanied by others which 

 show a passage to the ordinary form of sorbi/olium. 



97- A. (Lomariopsis) poli/jj/iT/llujii, Hook. ; caudex long 

 scandent tortuose very paleaceous, stipites 2-4 inches in 

 length and as well as the rachis (which is winged upwards) 

 paleaceous with subulate brown spreading scales, fronds 

 firm-membranaceous subi)ellucid dark-green H foot long 

 .5-4 inches wide at most, narrow-kuu-eolate much attenuated, 

 below, pinnate, pinme numerous not less than 40 pairs; 



