8 



ments oblong (the smaller deltoid — oblong) blunt or acute, ^-1 in. 1. 2-4 H. w. broadly adnate at the 

 base, entire or the inferior sinnate or shallowly and roundly lobed; veins prominent beneath, pellucid, 

 forming a row of costal areolae, the numerous branches of which are free or casually united ; sori reach- 

 ing from bottom to top of the lobes. — P. vespertilionis, Labil. P. fjlauca, Moritz. 



Frequent among brushwood on open hillsides and the skirts of forests at 5000-6000 ft. alt. 

 This, like viscosa, is subscandent in its larger states. It has a general bluish tinge, like the bloom 

 on certain kinds of fruit. The lowest, and reduced, pair of pinnules lap over the opposite pair on the 

 face of the rachis. The venation is variable, — quite free in parts, or with a line of costal areoles, the 

 exterior branches free or more or less anastomosing near the margin. The colouring of the different 

 parts is beautifully clear and bright, especially of the rachis and costse, both of which are channelled. 



18. P. deflexa, Link. — Rootstock stout, woody, obliquely erect, clothed with narrow dark rather 

 spreading scales ; stipites csespitose, strong, channelled, asperous beneath and scaly at the base, 2-4 

 ft. 1. light or dark brown ; fronds coriaceous, rigid, dark green and glossy above, paler beneath, naked 

 except the ribs beneath which are rather puberulous, tripartite, quadripinnate, 2-3| ft. I. and about 

 as w. subdeltoid, central division equilateral, the basal divisions distant and their primary branches 

 on the lower side much enlarged, the inferior 1-1^ ft. 1. f ft. w. bi. (or rarely tripinnate), the branches 

 on the upper side much reduced and simply pinnate, or tripinnate at the very base ; ultimate seg- 

 ments linear, ^-1^ in. 1. 2 li. w. straight or curved, mucronate, spinulose at the base above, subdistant, 

 free on the superior side of the base, adnate on the lower, barren segments broader, and the margins 

 spinulose-serrate in the outer third, rachis and costse rather scabrous, slightly scaly in the axils, 

 brown, channelled, veins simple or forked, the lowest in barren fronds often springing from the 

 costse ; sori reaching from the base to the mucronate apex of the segments. — P. stridens, Agardh. 

 Plum. t. 160 in part. 



Frequent in the primeval forest of the higher ridges and peaks above 6,000 ft. alt. attaining the 

 highest elevation of any member of the genus. A large plant, the most rigid, hardly excepting aqui- 

 Una, of any. Only full-grown plants exhibit the tripartite habit. The continental forms have much 

 smaller divisions and final segments a third to a sixth smaller —hence Agardh named the Jamaica 

 plant P. stridens ; the habit and other characters are however the same in both. Plumier's figure, on 

 the jight of the page, is an exact representation of a young frond. 



19. P. aquilina, Link. — Rootstock pencil-thick, wide-creeping subterraneous ; stipites scattered, 

 erect, 1-3 or more ft. 1. naked, stramineous ; fronds large, deltoid or elongato-deltoid, tri-quadripinnate 

 2-4 ft. 1, about as w. coriaceous and rigid, pale green, upper side naked, under coated with very fiae 

 light silky tomentum ; pinnse approximate or more or less distant, the outer part simply pinnate; ter- 

 tiary with a straight linear apical segment and similar or much shorter close lateral ones ^-^ in. I. 

 1-1^ li. w., rachis and costse stramineous, ribs slightly puberulous-scaly ; veins fine, forked or simple ; 

 sori continuous around the lobes, with a slight interior involucral valve as well as the normal exterior 

 one. — Pcesia, St. Hil. Ornifhopteris, Agardh. — Eat. Fer. N. Am. PI. 35. 



Yar. P. esculenta, Forst. — Final segments, especially in the outer part of the primary and second- 

 ary divisions where they are most apart, connected at the base by an arc-like auricle. 



Var. P caudata. Linn. — All divisions more open, the longer final segments 6-8 li. apart, longer, 

 narrower and not connected by the shallow transvere auricle, but the outer slightly decurrent, the ter- 

 minal caudate, 1 1-^ in. 1, 1-^ li. w. ; hardly less tomentose beneath — Plum.t. 29. Sloane t. 63. 



Most abundant from about 2,000 ft. alt. upwards covering open hillsides and ridges, waysides and 

 the skirts of forests throughout the colony. Plants in shade are more lax and straggling in habit, and 

 often reach as much jas 12ft. high, supported by other vegetation. All the forms are less compact and 

 vary in other particulars more or less from the European brake-fern or bracken. The rachises &c. are 

 sometimes chestnut brown, and the ribs of the ultimate pinnules and segments are flat on the underside 

 and scariose-margined. A cross section of the petiole shows several distinct bundles of vessels. The 

 varieties are equally common. The species is nearly universal, extending as far north as the arctic 

 regions. The double involucral valves would entitle this and the next species to both generic and tribal 

 distinction. 



20. P. viscosa, Moore. — Rootstock wide-creeping, slender, finely scaly ; stipites scattered, distant) 

 rather slender, 1-1^ ft. 1., dark- colored ; fronds pale green, coriaceo-herbaceous, tuberulous-scaly and 

 viscid, tri-quadripinuate 4-6 ft. 1. or more, 2-4 ft. w., composed of several distant alternate spreading or 

 erect-spreading, ovate pinnae, which are 1-2 ft. 1., ^-1 ft. w. ; piunulse close or sub-distant, lanceolate, 

 sessile, 5-8 in. 1., 1^-2 in. w., the acuminate apices, bidentate-serrate ; tertiary segments numerous, f-1 

 in, 1., 4 in- w., the outer part entire and acute or blunt pointed^ within deeply pinnatifid, final lobes 

 short, deltoid-ovate, blunt, 1-1^ b- 1- by nearly the same w., rachis costae, &c., reddish brown, rust}'- 

 glanrtulose, and flexuose or the former zigzag ; veins free, forked, pinnate flabellate ; sori continuous on 

 the lobes; involucres double. — Hook Sp. Fil. vol. 2, t. 121 B. and vol. 3 t. 141 0. Pcesia, St Hill. 

 Ornithopteris, Agardh. 



Common, growing among brushwood, upon which it is subscandent, and along the skirts of for- 

 ests, often in company with P. incisa, from 5,000-6,000 ft. alt. Every part is densely glandulose — vis- 

 cid, the pinnse nearly sessile, and their lower pinnules reduced especially the lowest of all on the supe- 

 rior side, the rachises and costules reddish. In a fresh state the interior valve of the involucre ig 

 clearly visible, and the veins pellucid. The colour is a bright peculiarly light green. 



