CHAEACTEES OF TEIBES AND GENEEA. 287 



chitm. The multifid character of the fronds induces me to 

 place it in Cheilanthece. 



Sp. 0. auratum, Kaulf. (v v.) ; 0. Japonicum, Kunze. 

 {Leptostigia lucida, Bon.) (v v.) ; 0. melanolepis, Kze. ; 0. 

 strictum, Kze. 



The three first are natives individually of Arabia, India, 

 and Japan, and the foui'th of Cuba. 



162.— OcEOPTEEis, /. Sm. (1841). 

 Hook. Sj}. Fil. 



Vernation decumbent. Fronds contiguous, long stipate, 

 deltoid, decompound, 2 to 3 feet high, smooth glossy ; stipes 

 and rachis pale, stramineous ; ultimate pinnules and lobes 

 oblong' elliptical, cuneiform, marginate, usually oblique. 

 Veins pinnately forked, radiating ; venules direct, apices of 

 the sterile clavate, free, the fertile 2 to 4 converging, and 

 transversely combined by a thick, impressed, sporangiferous, 

 marginal receptacle. Sori oblong, rarely two on each lobe. 

 Indusium formed of the reflexed m.argin, thick, coriaceous. 



Type. Ad.iantum pattens, Swariz. 



Illust. Hook, and Bauer Gen. Fil, t. 106, A. ; Moore 

 Ind. Fil., p. 29, A. ; J. Sm. Ferns Brit, and For., fig. 

 94 ; Hook. Syn. Fil., t. 2, fig, 22. 



Obs. — This genus is founded on a solitary species of very 

 distinct habit, a native of Mauritius. It was originally 

 placed by Swartz in Adiantum, but it is readily distinguished 

 from that genus by the sporangia being seated in the axis of 

 the reflexed indusium and not on its disc, while the conver- 

 gence of the fertile venules distinguishes it from Pteris. 



Sp. 0. pallens, /. Sm. (v v.), Hook. Sp. Fil, 2, t. 77, B. 



