276 



The scales of the stems are appressed and more or less imbricated, 

 especially about the nodes and buds, but deciduous. The outer pin- 

 nulae are much more curved generally than in either of the allied pre- 

 ceding species, of which character the inner ones in a lesser degree 

 often partake. There are two forms — a broader and narrower, a va- 

 riation which, perhaps, may be due to difference in altitude. The lat- 

 ter, in which the ultimate segments are only J inch long, and the 

 edges revolute, comes near G. revoluta, H. B. K., for which species a 

 specimen, gathered by Purdie in January 1843 on the top of Blue 

 Mountain peak, was mistaken and is so ascribed in Hooker and Baker 

 Syn. Fil. 



4. O. Bancroftii, Hook. — Stipites and rachises strong, glossy, naked, 

 with one or two (usually one) pair of long, oblong, acuminate pinnae 

 at the top extended at right angles, arch-like ; terminal bud densely 

 clothed with linear-acuminate light-brown scales ; pinnae bipinnate, 

 3 - 5 ft. 1. 15 - 20 in. w.; pinnulae close and very numerous, spreading 

 at right angles and parallel, 6 - 10 in. 1. 1 - 1| in. w., sessile, acuminate ; 

 ultimate segments close, linear, acute, the edges often reflexed, 

 f - 1 in. 1. 1 - 1| 1. w. ; the inferior ones free and subcordate at the 

 base on the upper side, adnate and shortly decurrent on the lower ; 

 costae with two raised light-coloured marginal lines down the face, 

 surface glabrous, pale green above glaucous beneath ; texture rigid ; 

 veins once, or rarely twice, forked, sori sparse or copious ; capsules 3-5 

 in a cluster ; receptacle ciliate with a few lanate ^cdle^.Mertensia glauca 

 Jamaicense, Swartz. M. Bancroftii Kze. PL Fil. t. 25. 



a. var gracilis, Jenm. — Pinnae 1 - 2 ft. 1. ; pinnulae finely pectinate, 

 ■J in. w. ; segments J li. w. 



Very abundant on the skirts of forests and more open places at 5,000- 

 6,000 ft. alt. A fine well marked species of singular habit, not to be 

 confounded with any of the rest included here. Grenerally it has only 

 one pair of pinnae which spread like outstretched arms on opposite 

 sides at the top of the petiole. There is a form in which the sCizments 

 extend into a pectinate state like the normal pinnules. In Hook and 

 Bak, Syn. Fil. this is included with the Old World G, longissima 

 Blume. 



5. G. dichotoma, Willd. — Stipites and rachises naked; pinnse in two 

 or three pairs, flabelliform, di-tri-chotomous, having in addition to the 

 auxiliary foliaceous bracts a pair of divaricated deflexed basal pinnulae 

 with serrated or subentire points, subtending the forks, uniformly pec- 

 tinate, but much shorter than the primary pinnulae ; the latter 6-10, 

 in. 1. 1^-2 in. w. ; petioles slender, not flattened or margined on the 

 face, and naked ; ultimate segments f-l in. 1. 1^-2 1. w. at the dilated 

 and slightly connected bases, the margin slightly reflexed or revolute, 

 obtuse or acute and emarginate at the point ; surfaces naked pale green 

 above, glaucous beneath ; veins 1-3 times forked ; sori copious ; spo- 

 rangia 12 or less in each cluster. Mertensia, Willd. Dicranoptcris, 

 Bernh. SI. Herb. p. 168. 



Abundant in situations from the lowlands up to 5000 ft. altitude, 

 but not so common and generally diffused as its close ally pectinate. 

 Its more compact habit, strictly and uniformly di-or trichotomous pin- 

 nae, with the pair of deflexed accessory inferior pinnules to each fork,- 

 unmistakably mark it, 



