CAMPTOSORUS RHIZOPHYLLUS. WALKING-LEAF, 67 
it will be understood how different in general appearance 
an oblong obtuse frond must be. Mr. Jacob Stauffer collected 
a form at Mount Joy, according to Dr. Gray, with roundish sort 
and inconspicuous veins. 
There is one character which is generally constant: the veins 
seem to cross each other’s path, and form a sort of net-work, or as 
it is technically called, they anastomose. The earlier botanists 
had overlooked or placed little value on these characters from 
the veins of ferns, and hence our species was called by Linnzus 
Asplenium rhisophyllum. But the moderns have restricted 
Aspleniun to those which have free veins; that is to say, veins 
which continue their whole length without touching each other. 
Our species was taken from Asfplenium in 1833 by Link, a Ger- 
man botanist, and called Camptosorus, the name being derived 
from two Greek words, signifying a bent heap, and this because 
the sori, or the little long heaps of sporangia, are “generally 
curved,” according to John Smith; or as Professor Eaton 
explains, “the indusia of the areoles next the midrib are also 
often bent at an angle, and the two portions plainly united.” 
This manner of veining—called in botany, venation—has not 
proved so constant a character in ferns as it was expected to 
be by those who first perceived its importance in classification. 
In the present instance we have a plant so remarkably near 
Asplenium pinnatifidum, that it is difficult for the common 
observer to see any material difference till he is told to notice 
whether the veins anastomose. On this anastomosing of the 
veins, which no morphologist would regard as of great moment, 
our plant is placed in a genus almost by itself. Professor 
Eaton is no doubt fully justified in his remark that it is by no- 
means impossible that Canzp/osorus will be again remanded to 
Asplenium, “tor it is now pretty generally admitted that differ- 
ences 1n venation do not constitute valid generic distinctions ;” 
and one might add scarcely specific differences either, for in 
many cases the individual plant varies in this respect. In our 
plate the frond (Fig. 4), a younger and barren one, is much 
