211 



3. 0. reticulatum, Linn. — Rootstock small, incased in brown slieatK- 

 like scales, emitting numerous fleshy spreading roots ; stipes erect, 

 2-4 or 6 in. 1., broadened gradually at the top ; leaf blade sessile, or 

 with a short petiole-like base, sub-ovate and acute at the top, or orbi- 

 cular reniform, fully cordate at the base, often deeply, with rounded 

 auricules, or subcordate-cuneate, thin and membranous when dry ; 

 veins visible, copiously areolated, the larger meshes containing fine 

 ones, no midrib ; spike single, 1-2 in. 1., on a petiole 3-6 in. 1., which 

 is erect, and continuous with the stipe. PI. Fil. t. 164. Hook, and 

 Qrev. Icon. t. 20. 



Frequent from the lower hills up to 3,000 or 4,000 ft. alt., occupy- 

 ing grass-banks, meadows and similar places. The leaf-blade varies 

 from suborbicular, the outer part rounded and the base deeply cordate 

 with rounded lobes, to subovate, the outer part acutely pointed, the 

 base less distinctly cordate, and tapering in the centre haft-like, but is 

 much longer. 



4. 0. palmat.ufn, Linn. — Hootstock short, fleshy, the crown clothed 

 with pale dense tomentum ; stipites l|-2 li. thick, J-l ft. 1. leaf-blades 

 pendent, J-1 ft. each way, Y or W-shaped, palmate, the base cuneate, 

 the sides curved and entire, deeply cut from the front towards the 

 base into 2-4 or 5 lobes, which are 4-8 in 1. 1-2 J in. w., tapering out- 

 wards to the point ; texture flaccid, fleshy, but membranous when dry ; 

 forming copious oblong hexagonal areolae, which are directed from the 

 base outwards ; spikes 3-6, or, perhaps, more, pendent, at short inter- 

 vals along the top of the stipites, or rarely on the sides of the base of 

 the leaves, l-lj or 2 in. 1., on petioles i or ^ in. 1. — PI. Fil. t. 163. 

 Eat. Fer. N. Am. pi. 81. Cheiroglossa, Presl. 



Infrequent, on trees in moist forests or overhanging rivers, from the 

 lowest to nearly the highest elevations (6,000 ft). A peculiar and 

 beautiful plant. The plants from the high mountain forests are 

 coarser than those from the lower habitats. It grows in peat formed 

 of the rootfibres of other plants, and often in a mass of several indi- 

 viduals together, sometimes in company with Vittaria stipitata. 

 The fronds are three or four or more to each plant. The range is pro- 

 bably general as I have gathered it in most of the eastern parishes, 

 and west as far as Manchester and St. Elizabeth. 



Genus II. Bofri/chium, Swartx. 



Capsules free and apart, globose, splitting when ripe to the base* 

 biserial on short flattened spikes ; fertile and barren divisions of the 

 fronds alike pinnate, or more or less decompound ; veins free ; stipites 

 springing from a membranous sheath, which crowns the fleshy root- 

 stock. 



There are about eight or a dozen species in this genus, which vary 

 in character as do those of the preceding, and follow, likewise, gene- 

 rally, the same geographical distribution. In one form or other all 

 but two or three are found on the American continent, though only 

 the two following penetrate the tropical limits, and are there confined 

 to temperate elevated regions. Both are deciduous, the fronds dying 

 away when growth is matured. 



Fertile division springing from near the base of the petiole. 



