210 



F I L I C E S. 



of a quill from the wing of a sparrow, firm, and clothed with round, 

 peltate, lacerated, brown scales and short fibrils, by which it clings to 

 the bark of trees. Fronds scattered, destitute of any proper stipe, 

 from 4 inches to a span long, linear-lanceolate and pinnate. Pinnae 

 membranaceous, smooth on both sides, distant, from 6 to 8 lines long 

 and 2 to 4 lines broad, subsessile, linear-oblong, obtuse; sterile ones 

 entire, the fertile bluntly toothed; their superior base truncate-cuneate 

 and parallel with the rhachis, the inferior one slightly cuneate; a few 

 scattered hairs on the costgeform vein on the upper side. Rhachis 

 canaliculate and pubescent. Sori large, submarginal, 6 to 8 on the 

 upper, and 3 to 5 on the lower margin of the pinnae. Indusium 

 entire, its form somewhat between cordate and reniform. 



The creeping rootstock of this very neat little species ascends the 

 trunks of trees ; unlike other species of the genus which have come 

 under our notice. 



2. Nephrolepis obtusifolia, Presl ? 



N. stipite brevi canaliculato paleaceo-hirsuto ; frondibus erectis pinnatis; 

 pinnis sessilibus horizontalibus oblongis obtusis dentato-serratis, basi 

 supra tvuncato-auriculata infra sidjcordata; rhachi pilosa; soris sub- 

 marginalibus ; indiisio reniformi. 



Nephrolepis obtusifolia, Presl, Tent. Pterid. p. 80? 



Aspidium obtusifolium, Willd. Spec. PI. 5, p. 231; Blume, Enmn. Plant. Jav. p. 145. 



Hab. Ovolau, and vicinity of Sandalwood Bay, Feejee Islands. 



Fiends erect, 6 to 8 in a cluster, from 15 to 18 inches high, linear, 

 attenuated at both ends, pinnate, with a slender, short stipe, of 11 or 2 

 inches in length, beset with brown paleaceous hairs, and having a 

 shallow channel in front, which is deeper in the hairy rhachis. Pinnw 

 sessile, horizontal, approximate, from 6 to 8 lines long and 2 to 2£ 

 lines broad, oblong, obtuse, the margin in the sterile ones finely, in the 

 fertile bluntly dentate-serrate; the siiperior base truncate and slightly 

 auricidate, the inferior subcordate. Sori seated close to the margin, 

 from 6 to 8 on the superior and as many on the inferior margin, 



