TAB. XCL 
ACROSTICHUM (ElAPHOGLOSSUM) BIFURCATUM, Sw. 
Glaberrimum nudum, caudice horizontal! vel ascendentecras- 
siusculo radicante apice solummodo squamoso, stipitibus 
dense ctespitosis gracilibus 3-6-uncialibus s tram i n ep- 1 u sc i s, 
frondibus 2-4-uncialibus oblongo-lanceolatis pinnatis, rachi- 
bus alatis: pinnis sterilium linearibus remote simplicibus 
plerisque furcatis vel bifurcatis costatis sen uninerviis, fer- 
tilium pinnis approximate brevioribus cuneatis vel subquad- 
ratis apice bi-4-fidis vel bi-trifurcatis. 
Acrostichum bifurcatum, Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 42. Sclik. Fil. t. 3. 
mild. Sp. FI. 5, p. 114. 
Osmunda bifurcata, Jacq. Col. t. 20, f. 2. 
Olfersia bifurcata, Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 234. 
Darea furcans, Bory, Voy. de la Coquille , But. p. 269, t. 35, 
f. 2. (sterile). 
Anogramme parodoxa, Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 64. 
Gymnograinme bifurcata, Kze in Linncca, 10, p. 496. 
Microstaphyla furcata, Pr. Epimel. But. p. 161. Fee, 7 me 
Mem. des. Foug. p. 45. 
Polybotrya bifurcata, Moore. 
Hab. St. Helena, and judging from the quantity of specimens we 
have received from different voyagers, it must be infinitely more 
abundant than the subject of our last plate, Acr. dimorphum : 
on wet rocks and mossy banks, to an altitude of 1000 feet and 
more above the level of the sea (Hook. fil). Plukenet records it and 
figures it more than 160 years ago as “ Filicula corniculata Insulce 
Sanctce Helena,” &c. My Herbarium contains specimens from 
the late Sir O. Staunton, collected on the voyage of Lord Mac- 
artney’s Embassy to China, from Menzies, Dr. Shuter, Cuming, 
n. 420 and 421, Nuttall, Lady Dalhousie, Dr. Lyall, Seeman, J. I). 
Hooker, but it is only the latter and Dr. Shuter who appear to 
have gathered the A. dimorphum ; also Forster, Lichtenstein, and 
Liebold are recorded as having gathered this species. 
I have already stated under Acrost. dimorphum (see our last 
plate XC.) that M. Fee pronounces that and the present plant to 
be one and the same, without even making a variety. “ ISTous 
avons sous les yeux di verses modifications qui semblent etablir 
le passage de Pune a l’autre par des nuances insensibles.” My 
own copious specimens I must confess lead me to an opposite con- 
clusion, and I have represented in our figures its extreme forms, 
A. hifurcatum has much longer and slenderer stipites, always desti- 
tute of scales, as is every part of the plant. It is true that in the 
fertile fronds there is a great tendency to become entire, less deeply 
divided than in the sterile fronds (as is still more strikingly seen in 
an allied group of Acrostichum, Rhipidopteris, Schott), but it goes 
no further than our figures show. If A. dimorphum were to break 
up into A. bifurcatum, the venation must undergo a considerable 
change ; for whereas in A. dimorphum the veins are simple or only 
once forked, here they are not uncommonly twice forked, the seg- 
ments having the same ramification ; hence the specific name. 
Tab. XCI. Sterile and fertile fronds of Acrostichum (Elaphocjlos- 
sum) bifurcatum, Sw. ; natural size. Fig. 1. Pinna of a sterile frond, 
and f. 2 and 3, Pinna of fertile fronds ; magnified. 
Cext. 2. T. 91. 
