246 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY , EoJ. A/P. 
there, at Ribeiro d’Amestade, and the description in the limes is said.. to have 
been made from the frond figured ; but it goes beyond that, and seems to have 
been intended to cover also A T . canariense, A. Br., which Milde considered to 
be a distinct species. So also does the description in the ‘ Synopsis ’ seems 
to have been designedly made comprehensive ; and afterwards it was thought 
sufficiently so to cover also A. Scldmpericmwn , Hochst., and N. marginatum , 
Wall. And, next, the habitats were extended eastwards from the Macaronesian 
Islands, over nearly all Africa, and the East Indies, and westwards to the 
South United States. I cannot find any specimen of A. eiongatum, as figured 
by Hooker and Greville, marked as having been collected in the Canary Islands ; 
nor does it seem to have been got on the Continent of Africa. Eor can I find 
any specimen of the more compound (or decompound ?) plant, N. canariense, 
marked as having been got either on Madeira or on the African Continent. 
But I must point out, in spite of Milde’s opinion that it is a distinct species, 
that A. canariense appears to be closely connected with N. eiongatum , for it 
shares with it two characters which I cannot find in N. Filix-mas , or in any 
African or Indian plant named N. eiongatum. These are (1), as stated in 
Hooker and Greville’s description, — “ the underside \of the frond) is minutely 
dotted with crystalline glands, and the involucre, which is very convex, is also 
studded with glands, some crystalline, some opaque (sic)” ; and (2)— which I 
cannot see anywhere noted — the secondary rhachises, and in a less degree the 
costs} of the pinnules, or the tertiary rhachises, bear peculiar small, rounded, 
pointed scales. These scales I cannot find on any form of N. Filix-mas , or 
on any other so-called variety of it, or on N. marginatum , Wall., or on any 
continental African species or form. 
The difference in cutting between even the largest specimens of N. canariense 
and the smallest and least compound (or decompound) specimens of A. mar- 
ginatum , Wall., is very marked ; and the very patent and closely-set pinnae and 
pinnules of N. eiongatum , Hk. & Gr., and A. canariense , A. Br., are in marked 
contrast with the ascendant and widely separated corresponding parts of A. mar- 
ginatum^ Wall. The texture and colour of the two species are very different ; 
and the scales at base of stipes are utterly dissimilar from each other as well 
as from those of A. Filix-mas. 
Nephrodium eiongatum , Hk. & Gr., is, as these authors say, Aspidium 
eiongatum, of Swartz, Syn. Fil. p. 55, Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5, 269, 1779, which 
again is th e- Poly podium eiongatum , of Alton, in Hort. Kew. Ed. 1, v. 3, p. 465, 
and Ed. 2nd, Vol. V., 1813. The type of Poly podium eiongatum is in Herb. 
Hort. Kew.— ticket — “ Poly podium eiongatum , Solandeiyn. sp, 1781,” Herb, 
late Bishop Goodenough, presented by the Corporation of Carlisle, June 1880. 
This has the characteristic scales, described above, on the secondary rhachises and 
