Puate 2. 
TRICHOMANES (§ Hymenostacnys) ELEGANS. 
Elegant Bristle-Fern. 
TricHomaNnes (Hymenostachys) elegans; caudex very short, indistinct, erect, 
with copious, long, wiry, descending roots; stipites tufted; sterile fronds 
numerous, broad-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, oblong-obtuse, serrated, acu. 
minate or frequently terminating in a very prolonged rachis, proliferous at 
its apex; fertile fronds one to three, broad-linear, margined on both sides 
with the very numerous, coadunate, cylindrical, obtusely bidentate involucres; 
receptacle elongated, filiform, much exserted ; veins anastomosing. 
TRICHOMANES elegans. Rudge, Pl. Guian. p. 24. t. 35 (excl. the fertile frond of 
T. spicatum). Hook. Gen. Fil. t. 108 (not Exot. Fl.). Hook. Gen. et Sp. 
Fil. v. 1. p. 114. 
Hymenostacuys diversifrons. Bory in Dict. Class. d’Hist. Nat. v. 8. p. 462, 
cum Ic. 
HyMEnostacuys elegans and osmundioides. Pres’, Hymenoph. p. 11. 
Frea Boryi. Van den Bosch, Syn. Hymenophyll. p. 7. 
Has. Tropical America, terrestrial; in shady woods, French Guiana, Poteau, 
Leprieur. British Guiana, Schomburgk, n. 1030. Valley of the Amazon, 
Spruce, n. 2182, 2944. Isthmus of Panama, Cuming, n. 1127; Seemann, 
n. 648; Fendler, n. 388. Trinidad, Purdie, Cruger. Jamaica, Purdie. 
Presl speaks of this as “planta in herbariis rarissima;” but 
its place of growth in damp shady woods, together with its lurid 
colour, have probably caused it to be overlooked. In form and 
texture it is very attractive; and though we do not agree with 
Pres] in regard to its rarity in tropical America, no Fern is pro- 
bably more rare and so little known as this in cultivation, and it 
only requires to be seen to be appreciated. It is but of late 
years that any of the Hymenophyllacee have been seen in culti- 
vation ; but owing to the success that has attended the attempts 
with our native species of Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes, the 
far more beautiful tropical species have recently been imported, 
and the stoves of Kew, and still more, we believe, of Mr. Back- 
house of York, already exhibit many lovely species from the 
West Indies. We are indebted to Dr. Cruger, the Government 
Botanist, Trinidad, for plants of the Zrichomanes here figured. 
This and all its congeners succeed best under a bell-glass or in 
small Wardian cases, even within a damp tropical fernery. 
Except in size, the present species is very constant to the cha- 
JANUARY Ist, 1861. 
