Puate 7. 
DAVALLIA (§ Humara) pepata, Sm. 
Pedate Davallia. 
Davai (Humata) pedata; caudex long, creeping, paleaceous ; fronds stipitate, 
very firm and coriaceous, small (three to five inches long), subovate, some- 
what five-angled, tripartito-pinnatifid; segments free, oblong, strongly ser- 
rate or subpinnatifid, lowest pair free from the rest, and at the inferior base 
(which is broader than the superior) bipinnatifid; involucres small, semi- 
orbicular, subterminal and marginal between the serratures, terminating a 
thickened vein; stipes scaly below. 
Davauita pedata. Sm. dct. Taur.v. 5. p. 414. Sw. Syn. Fil. pp. 131 and 341 
(eacl. Syn. Cav.?). Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 5. p. 466. Wall. Cat. n. 250. Hook. 
Sp. Fil. v. 1. p. 154. ¢. 45.4. Nees and Bil. Pl. Jav. in Act. Nat. Cur. 
vy 11.413. f. 1. 
Davauuta subimbricata. Bl. En. Fil. Jav. p. 231. 
Humata pedata. J. Sm. 
PacHYPLeuRiA pedata. Fée, Gen. Fil. p. 322. 
ADIANTUM repens. Linn. Suppl. p. 446. 
Has. Malay Archipelago, frequent, Java, Blume and others. Singapore and 
Sylhet, Wallich. Ceylon, abundant. Mauritius and Bourbon. 
Of the beautiful genus Davad/ha (so named by Sir J. E. Smith, 
in compliment to a very amiable Swiss botanist, M. Edmund 
Davall), one hundred and twelve species are enumerated in our 
‘Genera et Species Filicum,’ many of them very ill-defined by 
authors, it is true, and doubtfully distinct. The present is an 
elegant and easily recognized member of the genus, and derives 
its specific name from the word pedatus, botanically used to 
imply a leaf or frond which is “tripartite, and has the lateral di- 
visions again divided in the fore (or anterior) part,” thus render- 
ing their two sides very unequal. The fronds vary more in size 
than in form or ramification: we have seen specimens scarcely 
more than an inch in length, while some attain to nearly six 
inches. In cultivation it requires the heat of the stove, and is 
best kept in a broad pan, so that its long branching caudex 
may have room to extend over the surface, and attach itself by 
its fibrous radicles. Cultivated in the warm stove at Kew. 
Puate 7 represents a plant of Davallia pedata, Sm., with sterile and fertile 
fronds,—natural size. Fig. 1. Fertile segment,—magnified. 2. Sori, one with 
the involucre removed to show the capsules,—more magnified. 
FEBRUARY lst, 1861]. 
