TAB. XCI. 



Acrostichum (Elaphoglossum) bifurcatum, Sw. 

 Glaberrimum nudum, caudice horizontali vel ascendente cras- 

 siusculo radicante apice solummodo squamoso, stipitibus 

 dense ctespitosis gracilibus 3-6-uncialibus stramineo-fuscis, 

 frondibus 2-4-uncialibus oblongo-lanceolatis pinnatis, rachi- 

 bus alatis : pinnis sterilium linearibus remotis simplicibus 

 plerisque furcatis vel bifurcatis costatis seu uninerviis, fer- 

 tilium pinnis approximatis brevioribus cuneatis vel subquad- 

 ratis apice bi-4-fidis vel bi-trifurcatis. 

 Acrostichum bifurcatum, Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 42. Schk. Fil. t. 3. 



Willd. Sp. PI. 5, p. 114. 

 Osmunda bifurcata, Jacq. Col. t. 20, f. 2. 

 Olfersia bifurcata, Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 234. 

 Darea furcans, Bory, Voy. de la Coquille, Bot. p. 269, t. 35, 



f. 2. (sterile). 

 Anogramme parodoxa, Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 64. 

 Gymnogramme bifurcata, Kze in Linnasa, 10, p. 496. 

 Microstaphyla furcata, Pr. Epimel. Bot. p. 161. Fee, Ime 



Mem. des. Foug. p. 45. 

 Polybotrya bifurcata, Moore. 



Hats. St. Helena, and judging from the quantity of specimens we 

 have received from different voyagers, it must be infinitely more 

 abundant than the subject of our last plate, Acr. dimorphum : 

 on wet rocks and mossy banks, to an altitude of 1000 feet and 

 more above the level of the sea (Hook. fil.). Pluhenet records it and 

 figures it more than 160 years ago as " Filicula corniculata Insula! 

 Sanctas Helenas," &c. My Herbarium contains specimens from 

 the late Sir G. Staunton, collected on the voyage of Lord Mac- 

 artney's Embassy to China, from Menzies, Dr. Shuter, Cuming, 

 n. 420 and 421, Nuttall, Lady Dalhousie; Dr. Lyall, Seeman, J. D. 

 Hooker, but it is only the latter and Dr. Shuter who appear to 

 have gathered the A. dimorphum; also Forster, Liechtenstein, and 

 Liebold are recorded as having gathered this species. 

 I have already stated under Acrost. dimorphum (see our last 

 plate XC.) that M. Fee pronounces that and the present plant to 

 be one and the same, without even making a variety. "Nous 

 avons sous les yeux diverses modifications qui semblent etablir 

 le passage de l'une a l'autre par des nuances insensibles." My 

 own copious specimens I must confess lead me to an opposite con- 

 clusion, and I have represented in our figures its extreme forms, 

 A. bifurcatum has much longer and slenderer stipites, always desti- 

 tute of scales, as is every part of the plant. It is true that in the 

 fertile fronds there is a great tendency to become entire, less deeply 

 divided than in the sterile fronds (as is still more strikingly seen in 

 an allied group of Acrostichum, Rhipidopteris, Schott), but it goes 

 no f urther than our figures show. If A. dimorphum were to break 

 up into A. bifurcatum, the venation must undergo a considerable 

 change ; for whereas in A. dimorphum the veins are simple or only 

 once forked, here they are not uncommonly twice forked, the seg- 

 ments having the same ramification ; hence the specific name. 



Tab. XCI. Sterile and fertile fronds of Acrostichum (Elaphoglos- 

 sum) bifurcatum, Sw. ; natural size. Fig. 1. Pinna of a sterile frond, 

 and /. 2 and 3, Pinna of fertile fronds ; magnified. 



OKlft. 2. T. 91. 



