228 , 38. ASPLENIUM, §§§§ ATHYRIUM. 



Hab. Arctic Europe to Madeira, the Canaries, Algiers, Crete, Himalayas (10-12,000 ft.), 

 Kamschatka, and Japan : Africa — Abyssinia, Natal, Cameroon Mountains (7,000 ft.) : 

 America — Sitka and Labrador to Cuba, Caraccas, and Venezuela. Of the common 

 European forms J. Filix-fcemina is a large plant with narrow lanceolate deeply pinnatifid 

 pinnules ; A. rhceticum. Roth, is smaller, with the pinnules broader, and not so deeply 

 cut ; A. moUe, Roth, thinner in texture, with oblong rhomboidal pinnules | in. broad ; 

 and A. laiifolium, Bab. (non Presl), a form with the pinnules so broad that they are con- 

 siderably imbricated. The N. American A. Martensi, Kunze, and A. Galeottii, F^e, do 

 not seem safely separable. The E. Indian A. pectinafum, Wall., is very thin in texture, 

 and has deeply-cut pinnules, with narrow spreading segments. A. tenuifrons, Wall., is 

 like A. molle, but with the midrib of the pinnae and pinnules beset with firm yellow 

 spines or strigillce ; as is also the case with various Indian, Ceylonese, and Javan forms, 

 with narrower, more slender, and more straggling pinnae and pinnules, — as A. gracile, 

 Don ; A. stramineum, J. Sm. ; A. tenellum, Wall. ; A. proliferum, Moore ; and the 

 S. American A. Dombcyi, Desv., and A. inchuni, F^e. Plants from Vajjicouver's Island 

 and the Rocky Mountains have round sori, with slightly developed ovate involucres ; 

 and a plant found by Mr. Stansfield in Yorkshire, very delicate in texture and bright- 

 green in colour, with pinnules quite cut down to the rachis into linear-lanceolate seg- 

 ments, which are again deeply incised, produces involucres only very rarely, and is the 

 Phcrjopteris plumosa of J. Smith (B. and F. Ferns, p. 269). 



193. A. (Athyr.) oxyphyllum, Hk. ; st. firm, erect, 6-12 in. ]., straw-coloured, 

 clothed at the base with large lanceolate-acuminate reddish-brown scales ; /r. 

 1-2 ft. 1., 6-12 in. br., lanceolate, with several distant pinnce on each side, which 

 are 4-8 in. 1., 1-2 in. br. ; pinnl. lanceolate, sometimes auricled on the upper 

 side, in the larger forms again pinnatifid, teeth mucronate ; texture subcoriaceous ; 

 rachis firm, naked, straw-coloured ; veins regularly pinnated ; sm in two rows 

 on the pinnae or pinnl. midway between the midrib and edge ; invol. oblong- 

 reniform. — Hk. Sp. 3. p. 221. A. drepanopteron, A. Br. Lastrea eburnea, 

 J. Sm. 



Hab. Himalayas (ascending to 7,000 ft.), Java, and Japan. — The midrib of the pinnae 

 on the upper side is often spinulose. This is as variable as A. Filix-fcemina in size and 

 cutting, but the texture is rigid, and the involucre much more like that oi Lastrea. 



194. A. (Athyr.) aspidioides, Schlecht. ; st. tufted, 6-12 in. 1., stramineous, 

 slender, naked, except at the base ; fr. 1-2 ft. 1., 8-12 in. br., ovate-deltoid, 

 tripinnatifid ; loioer pi?i?ice 6-8 in. 1., lanceolate-deltoid ; pinnl. lanceolate, cut 

 down below nearly to the rachis into inciso-pinnatifid ovate scffm. 2 lin. br. ; 

 texture herbaceous ; colour dark-green ; both surfaces naked ; rachis stra- 

 mineous, slender; sori copious, oblong, the lower ones curved. — /3, A. scan- 

 dicimim, Presl ; fr. larger and more finely cut ; sec/m. deeply pinnatifid, 

 with narrow linear divisions, the whole breadth of which the sori some- 

 times occupy. — A. multisectum. Brack. Hk. Sp. 3. p. 223. A. laxum, 

 P. 4- R. 



Hab. Ecuador, Sandwich Isles, Neilgherriea, Madagascar, Fernando Po, Cape Colony. 

 — The extremes differ widely, but some of Dr. Spruce's American examples quite cor- 

 respond with the Cape and E. Indian plant. 



195. A. (Atliyr.) hrevisorum, Wall. ; st. 12-18 in. I., erect, slender, naked, 

 greyish ; //•. 2-3 ft. I., 9-18 in. br. ; lower pinna; 1 ft. or more 1. ; pinnl. lan- 

 ceolate, distant, 2-3 in. 1., 1-1^ in. br. ; segm. lanceolate, | in. 1., 2 lin. br., 

 deeply and sharply toothed ; texture herbaceous ; rachis naked ; lateral veins of 

 the segments forked ; sori small, 6-12 to a segm., in two rows near the midrib, 

 the lower ones curved, often double. — Hk. Sp. 3. p. 229. 



Ilab. Ava and Mishmee, and gathered lately in the Sandwich Islands by Dr. Hille- 

 brand. — Like A. achilkoifolium in cutting, but much larger and more compound. 



196. A. (Athyr.) conchatum, Moore ; st. 2 ft. or more 1., stout, erect ; fr. 3-4 



