alone, P. angusta, a Mexican plant, has hitherto heen descri- 
bed by authors. The present individual is a second species of 
Pleopeltis, which was gathered at the Cape of Good Hope, and 
communicated to me by Captain Carmichael, F. L. S. of Ap- 
pin, Argyleshire, a gentleman who has published an admirable 
account of the Island of Tristan d'Acunha, in the 12th volume 
of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, and who is un- 
questionably the ablest hydrophytologist we have in Scotland. 
A third species of this genus I have received from Dr Wal- 
LiCH, and it is probable that others will yet appear, which 
have hitherto been confounded with Polypodium. 
The generic appellation of Pleopeltis is derived from 
many, and rsXrt]^ a scale, in allusion to the numerous scales or 
involucres, which, collected over one cluster of fructification, dis- 
tinguish it from Aspidium, in which, as is well known, the in- 
volucre is solitary. If, however, in the presence of scales, this 
genus comes nearest to Aspidium ; its general habit is so simi- 
lar to some of the Polypodia, that, with regard to the plant be- 
fore us in particular, it is hardly possible to discriminate it from 
the Polypodium lanceolatum of Willdenow, except when it 
is examined in a young state. At a more advanced period, the 
involucres disappear ; and, I may observe, that the resemblance 
is still more strengthened, by the circumstance of the fronds of 
Polypodium lanceolatum being equally beset with scales as 
those of our Pleopeltis. 
Fig. 1. Portion of a frond, with its scales and involucres. Fig. 2. Single 
scale of the Involucre, covering its numerous Capsules. Figs. 3, 3. 
Scales of the Frond. Fig, 4. Capsule bursting, and discharging the 
seeds.— more or less magnified. 
