129 



3,000 ft. altitude. Resembles in general aspect the following, with 

 which it is often associated, but it is of more compact habit, softer 

 densely pubescent substance, pale green colour, and more copious sori. 

 The habit is very erect, but the parts slender and rather fragile. In 

 plants growing in the open, the sori gradually conceal the entire under- 

 surface, passing from yellowish- green to dark blackish -brown at ma- 

 turity. 



46. P gracilentum, Jenm. n. sp. — Rootstock upright, fribrous, an 

 inch or so thick, stipites slender, ctcspitose, erect, gray-green, channelled, 

 ■|-1 ft. 1., naked or puberulous, a few dark scales at the base ; fronds 

 erect-spreading shuttle-cock form, bipinnatifid, 1^-3 ft. 1. 5-8 in. w., 

 weakly, dark green, paler beneath, naked except on the slender chan- 

 nelled, rachis costao and ribs which are finely puberulous-pubescent, 

 oblong-lanceolate, tapering both up and down, gradually to the apex 

 into the lobed, serrulato-entire point ; pinmc distant, the inferior 

 dwindling to remote segments ligulate, spreading nearly horizontally, 3- 

 4^ in. 1. 3-8 1. w., opposite or sub-opposite, sessile, the acuminate point 

 evenly entire, pinnatifid nearly to the slender slightly flexuose costae ; 

 segment 3-5 li. 1. 1-1^ li. w. blunt or subacute, open, slightly dilated' at 

 the fully adnate base, the basal pair slightly enlarged, the margins even 

 or faintly crenulate and slightly reflexed ; veins simple, oblique, 6-8 to 

 a side, that on the inferior base sometimes forked, raised on the upper 

 surface ; sori nearly medial occupying usually all the veins, superficial 

 or slightly sunk. 



Common from 3,500-5,000 ft. alt. in grass by the sides of open shal- 

 low streams and in similar wet exposed places ; of a dark green colour, 

 and pale brown, fragile, very slender vascular parts, the upper surface 

 in some cases appearing as if crinkled from the raised venation and 

 slightly impressed fructification. From the very apex of the fronds the 

 pinnas steadily widen apart downwards to 1-3 in. in the small lobate 

 segments to which the inferior are reduced. There is a variety occupy- 

 ing the same situations, possessing the some general aspect, but with 

 narrower quite horizontal pinnas, and close straight horizontal seg- 

 ments and less obvious venation. I have both also from Cuba. For 

 many years this was referred to Neph. contermimim, Desv. — a species of 

 particularly well marked identity but regarding which there is great 

 confusion. 



47. P. ctenoides, Fee. — Stipites caespitose from a strong upright 

 rootstock, 1-1^ ft. 1., strong, densely rusty pubescent ; fronds erect, 2- 

 2| ft. 1. 8-12 in. w., chartaceous, stiff, dark green and glossy above, 

 paler beneath, slightly ciliate or naked, glandulose puberulous beneath, 

 the costse hispid-pubescent as is also very densely the rachis, which is 

 grayish or rusty and channelled ; pinnas spreading contiguous, sessile, 

 with a projecting gland at the base beneath, 4-6 in. 1. f-fth in. w , very 

 acuminate, passing through serratures to the sharp entire point, deeply 

 pinnatifid to within a line of the costse, the lower ones suddenly re- 

 duced to very minute segments which, at intervals, descend the stipites ; 

 segments close, nearly straight, oblong, obtuse-acute, 4-5 1. 1. 1^ 1. b. 

 hardly dilated at the confluent base, the basal pair, except in the upper 

 part of the fronds, reduced ; margins slightly reflexed ; veins simple, 

 rather oblique, pellucid while fresh, 12-15 to a side ; sori medial, soon 

 dispersed Phegopteris, Fee. Fil. Ant. t. 14. fig. 2. 



