Puate 58, 
ACROSTICHUM (§ Nevrocatus) presrantissttuM, 
Bory. 
Beautiful Neurocallis. 
Acrosticuum (§ Neurocallis) prestantissimum ; caudex short, erect; fronds 
ample, including the stipes (about equal in length to the frond), three to 
four feet high or more, tufted, ovate, or oblong, pinnated ; pinnae twelve to 
thirteen to twenty-six, five to ten inches lony, two inches broad, subcoriaceo- 
membranaceous, inarticulate ; s¢erile ones oblong, more or less suddenly 
acuminate, sessile, obliquely cuneate at the base, strongly costate; veins 
uniformly reticulated; the areoles oblong, hexagonal, transverse ; fertile 
as long as the sterile ones, narrow linear oblong, one-third or half an inch 
wide, finely acuminate, the margin subinvolucrate ; areoles of the veins longi- 
tudinal ; sori covering the whole back of the pinnae, except the costa, some- 
times forming a broad band, only extending half-way to the costa, and at 
other times confined to a narrow line at the margin, as in Péeris, and then 
closely covered with a narrow pteridvid involucre; stipes and rachis tawny- 
red, glossy. 
ACROSTICHUM prestantissimum. Bory in Fée. 
NEvROCALLIS prestantissima. J¥e, Acrostich. p. 89. ¢. 52 (very good). 
Has. West Indies, very local. Guadeloupe, L’Herminier in Herb. Nostr. ; 
Dominica, Dr. Imray, n. 65, 74 and 62 (1839).—Cultivated in Horticul- 
tural Gardens, Kew, from plants sent by Dr. Imray. 
Truly this is, as M. Fée (the only person who has written on 
it) remarks, “la plus belle de toutes les Acrostichées connues : le 
nom de 4. prestantissimum, donné par M. Bory, lui convient mieux 
qu’a toute autre.” It is evidently a plant of great rarity, or it would 
long before have been described by authors. M. Fée speaks of 
it as being in the herbarium of Mongeot and Bory, from Guade- 
loupe. It has been distributed with great liberality by the 
Professors at the Herbarium of the Museum of Paris, and I am 
indebted to them for a magnificent native specimen ; and I have 
very little doubt that Messrs. Mougeot and Bory derived their 
specimens from the same source. I have the good fortune to 
possess equally fine specimens from Dominica, from Dr. Jmray ; 
and that gentleman has favoured us with a living and now very 
flourishing plant, from which our figure has been entirely derived. 
No other country than the above two West Indian Islands, as 
far as I know, possess this plant. 
MARCH lst, 1862. 
