33 
HEMIONITIS PALMATA. 
Pabnated Hemionitis. 
CRYPTOGAMIA FILICES — Nat. Ord, FILICES, Juss. Div. I. Gyrat.-e, Br. 
Gen. CriAR. — Capsuloc venis reticulatis frondis insertac. Involncrum nullum. 
Hemionitis palmata; hirsuta, fronde pentagona profunde qiiinqiiefida, 
segmentis lanceolatis crenato-lobatis, stipite elongate. 
Hemionitis palmata. Linn. Sp. PL p. 1535. — Swartz, %w. Fil. p. 20. — Lam. 
Illust. t. 868. f. 2.— WiLLD. Sp. PL V. 5. p. 129— Ait. HorL Kern. ed. 2. 
V. 5. p. 502. 
Root of many long, branching, scarcely hairy, fibres, (Sw.) Stipes many 
from the same root, 4-6 inches long, erect, about as thick as a crow's 
quill, purplish-brown, covered with feiTuginous patent hairs. Frond 3-4 
inches in length, somewhat cordate in its circumscription, deeply divided 
into 5 segments which spread out so as to form a pentagon ; of these the 3 
superior lobes are the longest, all are rather broadly lanceolate, hairy, dark 
green above, paler beneath, the centre furnished with a strong purplish 
rib, prominent on the underside, the margins crenato-lobate, the lobes 
obtuse, fringed. 
Fructification confined to the numerous branching anastomosing lateral veins, 
forming raised lines, and destitute of involucrum. Capsules numerous, at 
length confluent, and covering almost the whole back of the frond, sphe- 
rical, pedicellated, reticulated, with an incomplete annulus. Seeds or 
sporules minute. 
The Hemionitis palmata was introduced to our gardens 
from the West Indies in the year 1793, by Rear- Admiral 
Bligh, and it deserves a place in every collection of stove- 
plants, being no less remarkable in the shape of its frond, than 
in the lines of fructification, which cover the underside of it 
like a network of a rich brown colour. It is readily kept in a 
pot of common earth, with a mixture of peat, and with the roots 
placed between two broken pieces of flower-pot, with the con- 
VOL. I. 
