Pteris. 
39 
Peninsula. We have met with a record of “ Corfu ” for this Fern, but do not know on whose 
authority it rests. Beyond Europe, it grows in Arabia and in many parts of tropical Africa 
(Abyssinia, Angola), and also reaching the Cape of Good Hope ( P . jlabellata , Thunb.). What 
is probably the same species also occurs in the West Indies, so that, though so rare in Europe, 
this species occurs over a wide extent of the globe. 
P. arguta has long been met with in our greenhouses ; it was introduced to cultivation in 
England in 1778, by Francis Masson. 
PTERIS LONGIFOLIA, Linn. 
In this species the caudex is short and tufted, and the fronds come off in close proximity; 
its extremity is covered with elongated, narrow, pale-brown scales, which also extend up the 
stipites of the fronds, though in no great number. The stipes is rather short, sometimes 
very remarkably so, and is channelled along its upper surface and sides ; when young it is 
covered with narrow pale-coloured scales, but afterwards becomes nearly smooth. The whole 
length of the fronds varies considerably, but in European specimens does not much exceed two feet ; 
their form is lanceolate, much tapered towards the base, and they are simply pinnate. The pinnae 
are remarkably long and narrow, quite undivided, usually opposite or nearly so, sessile, and placed 
at a distance from one another; they are four to six inches long and much drawn out, their 
form being linear, but widest at the base, which is abruptly truncate or frequently cordate or eared ; 
the frond ends in a single terminal pinna, which is usually longer than the rest. The veins 
are closely placed and free, terminating at the margin of the pinnae, which is finely but 
sharply senate, with minute hard teeth. The sori are marginal, copiously produced, extending 
along nearly the whole border of the pinnae, and covered with the quite entire reflexed false 
indusium. 
This is a southern Fern, and its European localities are all in the Mediterranean 
basin. There are several in the south of Spain, as near Malaga and Granada, but it does not 
grow in other parts of Spain or in Portugal. In Italy, P. longifolia is found in Calabria and 
near Naples, and in Sicily there are several well-known localities. An outlying station is the 
island of Ischia, off the Neapolitan coast, where the Fern grows on the hot tufaceous rock 
of an extinct volcano, from which place there are specimens in the British Museum herbarium. 
Passing eastward, we find it in Dalmatia, Zante, and the Morea, and it further extends in this 
direction, out of Europe, to Lycia and Syria. Returning along the south shore of the Mediter- 
ranean, Egypt and Algeria produce the plant, and it is also found in the Canary Islands and 
the Cape Verdes, but does not reach the Azores. It grows in shady wet places on rocks and 
old walls. 
Beyond these regions, however, P. longifolia is found in most of the hot countries of the 
world. It is abundant in tropical Asia, as throughout peninsular India (ascending to 4,000 feet 
in the Himalayas), Java, the Malay Archipelago, &c., and reaches to the Pacific Islands. In 
tropical Africa it has a wide distribution also, and grows in Madagascar and in Mauritius. It 
is less common in America, though abundant in the West Indian Islands ; Mexico and Vene- 
zuela appear to be the only localities on the continent. 
Out of the very numerous names — about twenty in number — which have been bestowed upon 
this species, we may mention two by which it is frequently known : P. ensifolia, Sw. and 
P. vittata , Linn. It is very frequently met with in cultivation, and is most easily grown; 
