136 FILICE& 



from which it differs in habit, venation, and the thick, scarcely 

 altered indusium ; the fronds being so narrow that the sporangia of 

 the two sori become confluent; in this particular resembling a 

 single segment of Onychium, where the veins are combined by a trans- 

 verse sporangiferous receptacle, as in Blechnum.— -The name of the 

 genus is compounded of **Uci two-valved, and ww/k* fern; alluding to 

 the apparently bivalvular indusium. 



Plate 17.— Fig. 1. Plant, of the natural size. 1 a. Portion of a 

 frond, showing the sori. 1 k Similar portion, with the indusium 

 removed on one side. 1 c Cross section of a sterile frond. 1 d. Cross 

 section of a fertile frond, showing the position of the sporangiferous 

 receptacle. 1 e. A similar section, showing a single receptacle only 

 on one side of the costa. 1/,/ Sporangia. \g. Sporules.— The 

 details magnified. 



47. SALPICHL^NA, J. Sm. 



(Blechni Spec. Kaulf.) 



This is distinguished from Blechnum by its climbing habit, and by 

 the venules being combined with an intramarginal vein, and by a 

 vaulted indusium, "bearing a portion of the sporangia along its 

 lengthened attachment at the base." 



1. Salpichl^na volubile, J. Sm. 



Salpichlcena volubile, J. Sm. in Hook. Jour. Bot. 4, p. 168 ; Hook. Gen. Fil. t. 93, 

 Blechnum volubile, Kaulf. Enum. Fil. p. 159. 



Hab. In thickets, on the banks of the Rio Paibana, Brazil. 



As belonging to the present tribe, this is indeed a very interesting 

 and singular Fern ; having bipinnate, scandent, flexuose fronds, which 

 climb among and over bushes and low trees by means of the reflexed 

 petioles of the pinnae ; these, in all instances that we have seen, are 



