TAB. IX. 



GYMNOGRAMME BENIFOBMIS, Mart. 



Caudice brevi crasso basi fibroso superne copiose paleaceo, 

 squamis subulatis ferrugineis nitidis, stipitibus casspitosis 

 3-uncialibus ad semipedalem ebeneis, frondibus sesquiun- 

 cialibus coriaceis reniformi-rotundatis, venis approximatis 

 flabellatis dichotomis, soris linearibus parallelis in zonam 

 semilunatam discum occupantem confluentibus. 



Gymnogramme reniformis, Mart. Ic. PL Crypt, p. 88. t. 26. 



Pterozonium reniforme, Fee Gen. Fil.p. 178. tab. 16. A. Moore, 

 Ind. Fil.p. lxi. 



Hab. Brazil ; dense woods on Mount Cupati, near the River 

 ^ Japura, Martius. Near Tarapota, Eastern Peru, on Mount 

 Guayrapurima, Spruce, 1856. 



One of the rarest and most beautiful of Ferns, with its 

 undivided reniform fronds, and the curious crescent-shaped 

 mass of sori, and the glossy ebeneous stipites. I am not 

 aware that it has ever been gathered, but by the two eminent 

 Botanists and S. American travellers just mentioned. Mr. 

 Moore, in adopting the Genus Pterozonium, does not fail to 

 remark, that it is "technically not very different from 

 Gymnogramme, but the aspect of the plant is so peculiar, that 

 the parallel contiguous receptacles, from which result a broad 

 submarginal confluent sorus, may well be considered sufficiently 

 distinctive." I am not aware that its habit is more peculiar in 

 the genus than the Gymnogramme figured in our preceding 

 plate, which, nevertheless, Mr. Moore properly retains in 

 that genus, rather than adopt J. Smith and Fee's Hecistopteris. 

 At any rate, our present Fern is not more remarkable among 

 the species of Gymnogramme, than Adiantum reniforme and 

 asarifolium and Parishii, Trichomanes reniforme, and Lindscea 

 reniformis, are in their respective genera. 



Martius appears to have gathered specimens nearly a foot 

 tall. 



Fig. 1. One half of a fertile frond, seen from beneath, f. 2. 

 Portion of do., showing the arrangement of the sori on the 

 veins, and the receptacles : — magnified. 



Cehi. 2. I. 9. 



