dual just alluded to was discovered, all the known Aspidia 
" frondibus simplicibus" possessed this remarkable character. 
Plumier first described and figured the Aspidium nodo- 
sum from plants that he discovered on the trunks of fallen 
trees in the Island of Martinique, and he seems to have 
been much struck with its beauty. " La racine pousse" (says 
he) " en toute sa longueur des feuilles k pddicules noirs, et 
d'une membrane tres ferme, d'un vert fonce, si unie et si 
polie, que vous prendriez les feuilles pour des pieces de sa- 
tin, bordees d'un galon blanc, et toutes traversees par des 
lignes paralleles, droites, et tiroes a angles droits sur la prin- 
cipale nervure." Schkuhr only knew the plant from Plu- 
mier's figure ; and the author of Lamarck's Encyclopaedia, 
as well as Swartz, appear never to have seen specimens, as 
they have confounded it with their A. articulatum, a native 
of the Isle of France, which has never yet been delineated, and 
which is distinguished from the present individual by its chaffy 
stipes and scattered fructification. 
For the possession of this plant in my Herbarium, I am 
indebted to the Reverend Lansdown Guilding, who finds 
the species in the Island of St Vincent's. 
Fig. 1. Portion of the frond. Fig. 2. Cluster of capsules with its involucre. 
Fig. 3. Single capsule. Fig. 4. Seeds. — AU more or less magnified. 
