TAB. LXIX. 

 Asplenium (Euasplenitjm) LONGICAUDA, Hook. 



Caudice brevi repente copiose fibroeo, stipitibus spithamasis et 

 ultra nitidis, frondibus pedalibus ad bipedalem pergamen- 

 taeeis (siccitate olivaceis) firmis, pinnis 5-9 late oblongo- 

 lanceolatis, 6-8 uncialibus acuminatis caudatis proliferis y. 

 cauda delapsa truncato-emarginatis margine integerrimis 

 v. sinuato-lobatis terminali ssepe longissima caudato-acumi- 

 nata et apice prolifera, costa subtus prominente, venis 

 remotis obliquis simplicibus v. furcatis, soris linearibus 

 remotis margine approximatis. 



Asplenium emarginatum, Hook. Sp. Fil. 3, p. 100 (in part), 

 not Beauv. 



Hab. Western tropical Africa, S. of the line, Dr. Curror ; 

 Prince's Island, Barter in Baikie's Niger Expedition, n. 

 1900 ; Fernando Po, on trees, Peak Mountain, at an ele- 

 vation above the sea of 3000 feet, Gustav Mann, n. 341 . 



A good suite of specimens which I now possess of this 

 Asplenium from the late Mr. Barter, and from Mr. Gustav 

 Mann, has convinced me that I have erred in uniting Dr. 

 Curror's plant with the A. emarginatum of Palisot de Beau- 

 vois : and this will be better understood when I shall shortly 

 give, in the present work, a figure and more perfect charac- 

 ter of the true emarginatum. The two plants are certainly 

 nearly allied : but the present may be known by the follow- 

 ing characters. It is a larger and less delicate plant, of a 

 very different and much firmer texture, resembling that of 

 parchment : its colour when dry is a dirty olivaceous brown. 

 The pinna? are entire (not serrated) and in its normal state 

 gradually accuminated at the apex, and the terminal pinna 

 is not, though larger than the lateral ones, materially altered 

 in shape : but it often happens that the pinnse are proliferous, 

 then the lateral ones are narrowly caudate at the apex and 

 a scaly bud forms : when this becomes a plant and falls away 

 a deep and wide notch takes its place. If the terminal 

 pinna is proliferous it is remarkably and gradually attenuated 

 (to the length of 1 or \\ foot) and the apex copiously pro- 

 liferous. The sori are always distant and are situated nearer 

 the margin than the costa : the reverse is the case in A. 

 emarginatum. 



Tab. LXIX. Represents a proliferous frond of Asplenium 

 longicauda ;— natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of a fertile pinna, 

 with a sorus, magnified. 



Cent. 2. t. 69. 



