252 ACROSTICHUM, § RHI PIDOPTE RIS. 



Vo7/. de la Bonite, Bot. t. 118, 119, and 110 {no descr.). —Yar. 

 costulata ; larger, sterile pinnre deeply pinnatifid ^-| of the 

 way to the rachis, costulate with simple patent veins some- 

 times bipinnate at the base. 



Hah. Continental India, in the hilly countries almost universal : Bengal, Ma- 

 dras, Peninsula of India, Himalaya, etc. Moulmeine, Parish, n. 69 (fertile pinnas 

 entire and moniliform mixed, and with sterile pinnse entire and lobato-pinnatifid). 

 Ceylon, Gardner. Malay Peninsula and Islands. — Var. costulata. Khasya, 

 Griffith. Hooker fit. and Thomson {sterile fronds G inches long and 1^ inch 

 hroMly fertile fronds entire or lobed and moniliform). Moulmeine, Parish, n. 60 

 (one specimen 2 feet long; the lowest pair of pinnae 7 inches long, half-deltoid, 

 bipinnate at the base ; pinnules l-g-Si inches long, deeply pinnatifid like the 

 primary pinna; ; fertile pinna; also with the lower pair in like manner pinnated 

 as in the sterile fronds). — I feel confident, from an examination of almost innu- 

 merable specimens from all parts of India, that the eight species included in M. 

 Fee's section Eyenolfia of Polybotrija are mere forms of one and the same. 

 A still more remarkable form than any of those, I have added to the number as 

 var. costulata; especially that state, found by Mr. Parish, distinguished not only 

 by the deeply pinnatifid pinnse, but l)y the lowest pair, both in the sterile and 

 fertile fronds, being again pinnate.^ The Khasya specimens, however, exhibit quite 

 intermediate forms. 



§ 6. Rhipidopteris. — Fronds small, singularly dimorphous, suhflalellately lobed 

 or deeplit dichotomous with narrow segments ; less deeply divided in the fertile 

 ones. Veitis for costce) free, flabellately or radiately divided. — Gen. Rhipido- 

 pteris, Schott. Peltapteris, Link. 



114. A. (Rhidopteris) peUatum, Sw. ; caudex very long- 

 creeping slender scaly, stipites 1-2 rarely 3 inches long pa- 

 leaceous; sterile fronds l-li inch long flabelliform repeatedly 

 dichotomously divided, the segments erecto-patent narrow- 

 linear ^ of a line wide evidently costate, bifid or entire at the 

 always obtuse apex ; fertile fronds abovtt 4 lines long sub- 

 peltate orbicular-reniform often emarginate or bilobed, the 

 whole under side soriferous except the subpellucid crenated 

 margin.— >Sii;. ^ijn. Fil. p. 11. Schk. Fit. t. 12. Willd. Sp. 

 PL V. p. 110. Rhipidopteris, Fee, Gen. Fil. Acrost. p. 78 

 {excl. the syn. of Acrost. foeniculaceum, Hook, and Grev.). 

 Peltapteris, Link. Olfersia, Pr. Osmunda, Sw. Prodr. 

 Plum. Fil. t. 50. /. A. 



Hab. Tropical South America, abundant, and West Indian Islands, Mexico, 

 Columbia, Guiana, Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador. — A beautiful and most easily re- 

 cognized species. Some of the fertile fronds have the sori very much confined 

 to the veins. 



115. A. (Rhipidopteris) flabelkttum, H. B. K. ; caudex 

 long-creeping filiform sparsely paleaceous, stipites 1-3 inches 

 long scarcely scaly; sterile fronds h an inch long cuneate 



