tribe have supposed it to be distinct. The numerous specimens 
in my herbarium do contain specimens with fronds as large as 
those here figured, and some with the spikes so short, as to sa- 
tisfy me that, though this may be a form produced by cultiva- 
tion, it is only a variety of AH. spicata; and these specimens 
further serve to convince me that only two distinct species of 
the genus are yet known, viz. H. sprcata and H. platyrhynchos 
(figured in our Ic. Plant. p. 142). 
With regard to the place of this genus in the system, the 
young fructifications on the living plants have almost satisfied 
me that Willdenow was not far wrong when he referred it to 
Lomaria, or Presl, in his ‘Tentamen Pteridologiz’ (the best and 
soundest of all his Fern publications), who placed it in his genus 
Gymnopteris (see Gymnopteris quercifolia, ‘Exotic Ferns,’ tab. 
Ixxxi.). I think it is impossible to look at figs. 2 and 3 of the 
present Plate, without recognizing a true indusium or involucre, 
exactly as in Zomaria, and a very broad one too. It is true that 
in age the involucres become patent, forced back by the copious 
capsules, and then the fertile portion has quite an acrostochoid 
appearance. Indeed, if the whole frond of our plant (instead of 
the apex only) became fertile, we should have (save in the vena- 
tion) a Lomaria very much resembling the entire-fronded forms 
of Lomaria Patersoni (see ‘ Exotic Ferns,’ t. xlix.). 
Pate 3. Sterile and fertile fronds of Hymenolepis spicata, var. brachystachys. 
Fig. 1. Portion of the sterile frond, showing the venation,— magnified. 2. Fertile 
portion, young, the sorus still concealed by the involucre,—natural size. 3. 
Portion of a spike, with the involucre bursting open and showing the numerous 
capsules, mixed with the copious peltate scales,—magnified. 4. Capsule; and 
5. Peltate scales,—more highly magnified. 
