52 DB. H. F. HANOE's SUPPLEMENT TO 



but accidentally omitted by Mr. Bentham. I have a charac- 

 teristic specimen gathered by myself still at hand.- An ambi- 

 guous fern as to position and affinities {Qfr. Hook. fil. Handb. 

 N. Zeal. Fl. i. 361, 381 ; ariseb. Tl. Brit. "W. Ind. 667 ; Mett. 

 Monogr. Phegopt. 13), diffused over most of the warmer parts of 

 the globe. 



♦Aspidiiun urophyUum, var. uniseriale, roiAi. {=Pol3rpodiuin gra- 

 nulosum, Benth. Fl. Hon^k. 459, but not of Presl.) 



*Aspidiiiin simplex, mihi. (=Meniscium. simplex. Hook. ; Benth. Fl. 

 Hongk. 457.) 

 I cannot keep ^hegopteris, to which Mettenius had already 

 reduced Meniscium (Ml. Lechler. ii. 20), separate from Aspidium, 

 of which it does -not even form a natural section, the different 

 "species being very variously related. Abundant evidence exists 

 that many usually nudisorous species are occasionally indusiate, 

 so that I cannot accept this as a generic character f. All differ 

 from Polypodmm by the continuity of rhizome and stipes. . 



*Aspidiuin jUix-mas, Sw.; Milde, Fil.Europ. 118. ( = Aspidium Cham- 

 pioni, Benth. Fl. Hongk. 456.) 

 Most of the South-Chinese specimens are referable td the 

 variety paleaceum ; but others belong to the common Europeati 

 form. 



■ 67. Aspidium erythrosorum, JBoion. (=Nephrodium erythrosorum, 

 Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 120, t. 253.) 

 Not common on the island, and found also on the mainland 

 near Canton, in iPokien, the islands of the Korean &ulf, and 

 Japan. 



*Aspidium variiun, Sw. ; Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 30, t. 226. ( = A. opacum, 

 Hook. ; Benth. Fl. Hongk. 456.) 



Distinct as good typical specimens of the above three ferns 

 appear (and the last is generically separated from the other two 

 by Mr. Baker), they yet run together so imperceptibly that 

 examples occur which cannot be referred with certainty to either, 

 and I do not doubt that they are all forms of one species. I 

 may add that the bright red hue of the indusia in A. erythrosorum 

 is not a constant character, and is sometimes equally conspicuous 



t " Phegopteridis species quasi per vim a proximis oognatis, quae nunc in 

 genere Jspidio sunt, diremtse aunt. Mentionem faciam solum Ph. cochleatce et 

 pj/cnolepidis, qua; in distributione naturaU juxta Aspidium vestitum ponenda; 

 sint, ita ut in quibusdam generibus indusii absentia Tel pncsentia non nisi ad 

 vicinas species secernendas adhiberi possit." Kuun, Fil. Afr. inirod. 4. 



