228 38. ASPLENIUM, §§§§ ATHYKIUM. 



Hab. Arctic Europe to Madeira, the Canaries, Algiers, Crete, Himalayas (10-12,000 £t.), 

 KaiBBchatka, and Japan : Africa — Abyssinia, Natal, Cameroon Mountains (7,000 ft.) : 

 America — Sitka and Labrador to Cuba, Caraooas, and Venezuela. Of the common 

 European forms ji.. Filix-fcemina is a large plant with narrow lanceolate deeply pinnatifid 

 pinnules ; A. rhaitimm, Roth, is smaller, with the pinnules broader, and not so deeply 

 cut ; ^4. molle, Eotb, thinner in texture, with oblong rhomboidal pinnules J in. broad ; 

 and A . latifolium, Bab. (non Presl), a form with the pinnules so broad that they are con- 

 siderably imbricated. The N. American A. Mariensi, Kunze, and A. OaleoUii, F6e, do 

 not seem safely separable. The E. Indian .4. pectiiiatum, Wall., is very thin in texture, 

 and has deeply-cut pinnules, with narrow spreading segments. A. temdfrons, Wall., is 

 like A. molle, but with the midrib of the pinnae and pinnules beset with firm yellow 

 spines or strigillse ; as is also the case with various Indian, Ceylonese, and Javan forms, 

 with naiTower, more slender, and more straggling pinnae and pinnules, — as A. gracile, 

 Don ; A. siraminoim, J. Sm. ; A. tenellum, Wall. ; A. proliferwn, Moore ; and the 

 S. American A. Dombcyi, Desv., and A. incisum, F&. Plants from Vancouver's Island 

 and the Rooky Mountains have round sori, with slightly- developed ovate involucres ; 

 and a plant found by Mr. Stansfield in Yorkshire, very delicate in texture and bright- 

 green in colour, with pinnules quite cut down to the rachis into linear-lanceolate seg- 

 ments, which are again deeply incised, produces involucres only very rarely, and is the 

 Phegopieris plumosd of J. Smith (B. and F. Perns, p. 269). 



193. A. (Athyr.) om/pht/llum, Hk. ; St. firm, erect, 6-12 in. 1., stravy-coloured, 

 clothed at the base with large' lanceolate-acuminate reddish-brown scales ; fr. 

 X-Vli ft. 1., 6-12 in. br., lanceolate, with several distant pinnce on eacli side, which 

 are 4-8 in. 1., 1-2 in. br. ; pinnl. lanceolate, sometimes aurioled on the upper 

 side, in the larger forms again pinnatifid, teetli mucronate ; texture subcoriaceous ; 

 rachis firm, naked, straw-coloured ; veins regularly pinnated ; sori in two rows 

 on the pinnse or pinnl. midway between the midrib and edge ; invol. oblong- 

 reniform. — HL Sp; 3. p. 221. A. drepanopteron, A. Br. Lastrea eburnea, 

 J. Sm. 



Hab. Himalayas (ascending to 7,000 ft.), Java, and Japan.-^The midrib of the pinnse 

 on the upper side is often spinulose. This is as variable as A. Filix-fcemina in size and 

 cutting, but the- texture is rigid, and the involucre much more like that of Lastrea. 



194. A. (Athyr.) aspidioides, Schlecht. ; at. tufted, 6-12 in. 1., stramineous, 

 slender, naked, except at the base; fr, 1-2 ft. 1., 8-12 in. br., ovate-deltoid, 

 tripinnatifid ; lower pinnae 6-8 in. 1., lanceolate-deltoid ; pinnl. lanceolate, cut 

 down below nearly to the rachis into inciso-pinnatifid ovate segm. 2 lin. br. ; 

 texture herbaceous ; colour dark-green ; both surfaces naked ; rachis stra- 

 mineous, slender ; sori copious, oblong, the lower ones curved. — ;8, A, scan-, 

 dicinum, Presl ; fr, larger and more finely cut ; segm. deeply pinnatifid, 

 with narrow linear divisions, the whole breadth of which the sori some- 

 times occupy. — A. multisectum. Brack. Hh. Sp. 3. p. 223. A. laxum, 

 P.^B. ^' 



Hab. Ecuador, Sandwich Isles, Neilgherries, Madagascar, Fernando Po, Cape Colony. 

 — The extremes dififer widely, but some of Dr. Spruce's American examples quite cor- 

 respond with the Capa and E. Indian plant. 



195. A. (Athyr.) brevisorum, Wall. ; st. 12-18 in. 1., erect, slender, naked, 

 greyish ; fr. 2-3 ft. 1., 9-18 in. br. ; lower pinnm 1 ft. or more 1. ; pinnl. lan- 

 ceolate, distant, 2-3 in. 1., 1-1| in. br. ; segm. lanceolate, j in. 1., 2 lin. br., 

 deeply and sharply toothed ; texture herbaceous ; rachis naked ; lateral veins of 

 the segments forked ; sori small, 6-12 to a segm., in two rows near the midrib", 

 the lower ones curved, often double. — Hib. Sp. 3. p. 229. 



Hab. Ava and Mishmee, and gathered lately in the Sandwich Islands by Dr. Hille- 

 brand. — Like A . achillecefolvum in cutting, but much larger and more compound. 



196. A. (Athyr.) conchatwn, Moore ; st. 2 ft. or more 1., stout, erect ; fr. 3-4 



