742 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NaTUEAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



there, at Eibeiro d'Amestade, aoid the description in the 1 cones is said to have 

 been made from the frond figured ; but it goes beyond that, and seems to have 

 been intended to cover also iV^. canariense, A. Br., which Milde considered to 

 be a distinct species. So also does the description in the * Synopsis ' seems 

 to have been designedly made comprehensive ; and afterwards it was thought 

 sufficiently so to cover also N. Scfdmperianum,^OQhs,\}.y&rxdi N, marginatum, 

 Wall. And, next, the habitats were extended eastwards from the Macaronesian 

 Islands, over nearly all Africa, and the East Indies, and westwards to the 

 South United States. I cannot find any specimen of N. elongatum, as figured 

 by Hooker and Greville, marked as having been collected in the Cauai7 Islands ; 

 nor does it seem to have been got on the Continent of Africa. Nor can I find 

 any specimen of the more compound (or decompound ?) plant, N. canariense^ 

 marked as haviog been got either on Madeira or on the African Continent. 

 But I must point out, in spite of Milde's opinion that it is a distinct species, 

 that N. canariense appears to be closely counecC'ed with iV. elongatvm, for it 

 shares with it two characters which I cannot find in iV. Filix-mas, or in any 

 African or Indian plant named A^. elongatum. These are (1), as stated in 

 Hooker and Greville's description, — " the underside {oi the frond) is minutely 

 dotted with crystalline glands, and the involucre, which is very convex, is also 

 studded with glands, some crystalline, some opaque (sic)" ; and (2) — which I 

 cannot see anywhere noted — the secondary rhachises, and in a less degree the 

 costss of the pinnules, or the tertiary rhachises, bear peculiar small, rounded, 

 pointed scales. These scales I cannot find on any form of N. Filix-mafi, or 

 on any other so-called variety of it, or on N. marginatum, "Wall., or on any 

 continental Afiican species or foim. 



The difference in cutting between even the large?t specimens of A^ canariense 

 and the smallest and least compound (or decompound) specimens of N. mar- 

 ginatum, Wall., is vei7 marked ; and the veiy patent and closely-set piimae and 

 pinnules of N. elongatum, Hk. & Gr., and JSl. canariense, A. Br., are in marked 

 contrast with the ascendant and widely separated corresponding parts of N. rriar- 

 ginatum, Wall. The texture and colour of the two species are very difi"ereni ; 

 and the scales at base of stipes are utterly dissimilar from each other as well 

 as from those of N. Filix-mas. 



Nephrodium eloiigatum, Hk. & Gr., is, as these authors say, Aspidium 

 elongatum, of Swartz, Syn. Fil. p. 55, Willd. Sp, PI. v. 5, 269, 1779, which 

 again is the Polypodium elongatum, of Alton, in Hort. Kew. Ed. 1, v. 3, p. 465, 

 and Ed. 2nd, Vol. V., 1813. The type of Polijpodiim elongatum is in Herb. 

 Hort. Kew. — ticket — " Polijpodium elongatum, Solauder, n. sp , 1781," Herb. 

 late Bishop Goodenough, presented by the Corporation of Carlisle, June 1880. 

 This has the characteristic scales, described above, on the secondary rhachises and 



