Prater 28. 
HELMINTHOSTACHYS Zzytantca, Hook. 
Ceylon Helminthostachys. 
Gen. Cuar. Helminthostachys, Kaulf. Capsules subglobose, clustered, 
opening downwards by a longitudinal fissure into two nearly equal valves: 
clusters pedicellate, crested, collected into an elongate, pedunculated, cau- 
diform, subdistichous terminal spite. Spores pellucid, small, globose.— 
Native of India. Caudex a thickened, fleshy, creeping rhizome, throwing 
down fleshy fibres; stipes simple, elongated, herbaceous ; frond ternato- 
verticulate, binate, ternate, or subquinate, or pinnate ; pinnee lanceolate, sub- 
serrate, lateral ones decurrently winged and coadunate, terminal one gene- 
rally free. 
HELMINTHOSTACHYS Zeylanica. 
Hetmintuostacuys Zeylanica. Hook. Gen. Fil. t. 47. Presl, Suppl. Tent. 
Pterid. p. 59. Hook 2nd Cent. of Ferns, t. 95. 
HEtmintuostacuys dulcis. Kaulf. En. Fil. p. 28. ¢. 1. f.1. (spike only). Bl. 
En. Fil. Tav.p.258. Wall. Cat. n. 54. Hook. and Grev. En. Fil. Bot. 
Miscell. v. 3. p. 220. 
Borrycaium Zeylanicum. Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 172. Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 5. p. 65. 
Osmunpa Zeylanica. Linn. Sp. Pl. 1519. 
OpxHiocLossum laciniatum. Rumph. Herb. Amboyn. v. 6. p. 153. t. 68. f. B. 
HELMINTHOSTACHYS integrifolia. Presi, Suppl. Tent. Pterid. p. 50. 
BorryorpterRis Mexicana. Presi, Relig. Henk. v. 1. p. 76. t. 12. f. 1. 
HELMINTHOSTACHYs crenata. Prest, Suppl. Tent. Pierid. p. 60. 
Has. Malay Archipelago and Amboyna, Lumphius; Luzon, Cuming, n. 39; 
Tavoy and Bengal, Wallich ; Mergui, Griffith ; Java, Blume, Thomas Lobo ; 
Borneo, Thomas Lobb; Ceylon (Linneus), Gardner, Thwaites ; Cochin, 
Mrs. General Walker, Johnstone ; New Caledonia, La Billardiére ; Guahan, 
Marianne Islands, Henke. Cultivated at Kew. 
In this case again, where the genus is limited to a solitary 
species, we give the generic character, which includes that of the 
species. ‘This is a Fern, or, as sometimes called, a Pseudo-Fern, 
allied to our well-known Ophioglossum vulgatum, but as it has a 
compound spike and compound fronds, it is properly considered a 
distinct and a new genus by Kaulfuss. It is peculiar to eastern 
and southern India, and the Malay Archipelago and Islands, and 
has been successfully introduced to Kew by the kindness of our 
JULY Ist, 1861. 
