52 
TRICHOMANES elegans. 
Elegant Bristle-Fern. 
CRYPTOGAMIA FILICES._Nat. Ord. FILICES, Div. GYRAXiE, Br. 
Gen. Char. — Sori marginales. Capsulce sessiles, receptaculo communi cy- 
lindraceo insertse, intra Involucrum monophyllum, suburceolatum, ore 
hiante, textura frondis. — Br. 
Trichomanes elegans; frondibus sterilibus lanceolatis pinnatifidis incisis, 
fertilibus linearibus involucris pinnatis. 
Trichomanes elegans, Rudge, PI. Giiian. p. 24. t. 35. — ^Willu. Sp. PL v. 5. 
p. 503. 
This singular plant has no apparent caudex; its rather stout, wiry, brown, 
almost simple, longish fibres spring immediately from the base of the 
fronds. 
Sterile fronds 4- or 5 inches in length, lanceolate, acuminate, gradually taper- 
ing below into a short, dark-colored hispid stipes, cut deeply at the 
mai'gin into several, rather closely placed, oblong, obtuse segments, which 
are bluntly-toothed, and most so at the extremity. The texture is thin 
and delicate, minutely reticulated, the color dark green ; through the 
centre runs a hispid rachis, and the segments have a central and several 
lateral parallel forked nerves. 
Fertile frond or spike about four inches in length, placed upon a long pe- 
duncle ; the Involucres arranged in a regularly pinnated manner, about 
2 lines in length, oblong or somewhat urceolate, tapering at the base, 
slightly curved, the mouth open. Receptacle half as long again as the 
involucre, filifomi ; its lower half covered with small, brown, shining 
capsules, sessile on their own base, having a complete, elastic, jointed, 
transverse ring, and bursting irregularly for the discharge of the seeds. 
Beautiful as are the individuals, in general, of the genus 
Trichomanes, this, in my opinion, excels them all, and amply 
deserves the specific name which has been appropriated to it. 
No species but the present, as far as I am aware, has the in- 
volucrum placed in spikes, on a stalk distinct from the com- 
mon appearance of the fronds ; nor has it apparently been 
known to any author but Mr Rudge, by whom it is published, 
VOL. I. 
