84 
THE FKRN WORLD OF AUSTRALIA. 
ring. The name is derived from alsos, grove, and phileo, to love. 
The genus is difficult to distinguish from Polypodium, the raised 
receptacle is perhaps the best characteristic mark but the tree -like 
habit of all Australian species is another distinguishing mark. 
A. Rebeccse, F. v. M. Trunk slender dark colored six to nine 
feet high, often forming a thick mass of shoots at their base. Main 
rhachis of frond dark rough. Secondary pinnae dark and shining, 
undivided lanceolate, two to three inches long, four to five lines broad 
or rather more when barren, acuminate, crenate or obtusely serrate, 
obliquely truncate at the base but not adnate to the rhachis. 
Transverse veinlets with three to seven branches. Sori rather 
large, on two to four of the branches, forming about two irregular 
rows on each side of the midrib. Found in the close rocky gullies 
of the Eockingham Bay Eange, Daintree River, Port Denison, and 
Cape Yoi'k Peninsula. 
A. Loddigessii, Kunge. Secondary pinnse two to three inches 
long lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid the segments all confluent at the 
base, more ovate than in A. AustraKs, throe to four lines long, two 
to two and a half lines broad, obtuse or almost acute, entire ; trans- 
verse veinlets entire or once forked. Sori rather small, one to four 
on each side of the costule of each segment. Found at Cape 
Byron, N. S. Wales. 
A. Australis, R. Br. Trunk ten to thirty feet high, stout often 
covered with the bases of the old fronds. Frond bi-tripinnate six 
to twelve feet long, three to four feet broad, stipes, and whole frond 
in a young state, densely clothed with linear-lanceolate and setaceous 
pale colored scales, the stipes, main rhachis and sometimes the 
secondary ones muricate. Secondary pinnas three to five feet long ; 
pinnules lanceolate or linear, the lower ones distinct and four to six 
lines l©ng, the upper ones shorter and confluent, the soriferous part 
entire or obscurely crenate, the barren one and the baiTen end of the 
soriferous ones often serrulate. Transverse veinlets usually once 
forked when soriferous, often with three to four branches when 
barren. Sori in two rows sometimes extending to the apex and as 
many as eight on each side of the costule, often fewer extending 
half way or reduced to very few at the base of the segment. In 
this species is merged A. excelsa, R. Br. which certainly does not 
differ enough to forni a good variety. This handsome tree fern 
is the most widely spread of all the Australian kinds, being 
found throughout Southern Queensland, and also in several 
tropical ^ parts. Common also in N. S. Wales, Victoria and 
Tasmania. 
A. Leichhardtiana, F. v. M. Prickly tree Fern. Trunk ten to 
twenty feet high, slender hard and dark, very different in general 
appearance from any others of the genus. Frond large spreading 
the rhachis dark rough or mucronate-spinulose, sometimes slightly 
tomentose, secondary pinn^ oblong acuminate, sessile, pinnatifid 
at the apex the lower pinnules detached and serrate. Sori in very 
