Doodia. 
8 ! 
of sunk into cavities, and in the shape of the indusia. Doodia aspera, which is not unfrcquently 
met with in greenhouses, has stiff, very rough fronds, about a foot high, resembling in general 
appearance those of a Blechnum ; it was introduced to the Royal Gardens, Kew, by George 
Caley, in 1808. D. caudata, another Australian species, is more commonly met with, as it is 
very easily cultivated, and readily propagates itself by spores ; the fronds are six or eight 
inches long, the terminal segment being much elongated. It was on this plant that Robert 
Brown established the genus in 1810; the name Doodia commemorates Samuel Doody, who 
was curator of the Chelsea Botanic Garden during the latter part of the seventeenth and the 
beginning of the eighteenth centuries, and devoted much attention to British botany, especially 
to the Cryptogamia, although he did not publish ; his collections form part of the Sloanean 
Herbarium already referred to, now in the British Museum. There is a curious form 
of D. caudata which has been described as a species under the name D. linearis ; this has 
long, narrow fronds, which are quite entire in the upper half, more or less divided towards 
the middle, and have distinct, short, rounded lobes at the base. Another Australian species, 
D. blechnoides , is sometimes met with in cultivation; it resembles D. aspera, but is a larger 
plant, and the fronds are much less scabrous. 
DOODIA CAUDATA (REDUCED). 
16 
