XXVin. I’LATYCERIUM. 
47 
1. A. AUKEUM, Linncnis (CimYSODiEM vulgaiie, Fee ). — A noble evergreen glabrous stove Fern, native of ihe 
West Indies, tropical America, Natal, and the East Indian and Puh'nesian Islands. Sterile fronds pinnate, six 
to eight feet long, reclining ; pinnm lanceolate-acuminate, rather membranous, light green, the lower ones 
potiolate, cuneate at the base, the upper adnate at the inferior base, and deourrent. Fertile fronds contracted, 
erect, lanceolate, pinnate, from six to eight feet high, soriferous throughout ; or with two or three of the lower 
pairs of pinnoe sterile. The fronds are terminal, adherent to an erect caudiciform rhizome. Mr. Heward 
mentions of this species, that it is very plentiful in morasses and water-courses in the lowlands of Jamaica, and 
never occurring at any great elevation above the sea shore. In cultivation, it requires a mixture of turfy loam 
and sand, abundance of water, and a heat of So'’ or 90° Fahrenheit, and with this treatment will form a splendid 
object. 
XXVIII. PLATYCEIllUM, Desmux. 
Sort amorphous, produced in irregular patches towards tlie extremities of the fertile fronds, or on 
a special lateral thickened lobe ; sporangiferous receptacle formed of an accessory layer of parallel 
anastomosing veinlots, which cross the sterile ones, and 
151'oduce crowded linear lines of spore-cases. TVihs reijcat- 
edly forked, and distantly anastomosing; internal, 
compoundlj' reticulated, with variously directed free vein- 
lets, terminating in the areoles. Fronds simple, forked, 
coriaceous, thick and spongy ; the sterile sessile, rounded 
or elongated, uniform, depressed or ascending, sublohatc, 
permanent and successively imbricated, forming an ele- 
vated S230ngy mass; the fertile widening upwards, and 
dividing into broad forked segments. — Named from 
broad, and keras, a horn ; the fertile fronds resembling 
broad horns, as those of the elk. 
The few species of this genus have an epiphytal habit, 
and produce their fertile fronds annuall}" ; these are 
attached by an articulation, and when mature fall spon- 
taneously, the persistent depressed alternate sterile ones 
then having the appearance of a lichen or fungus. In the 
absence of fructification, the genus is readily known by 
the stellate pubescence that covers the whole surface. Fig. 
29 repi’esents a portion of the fertile frond of Flattjcerium 
alcicorne (med. size). 
1. r. ALCicoiiNB, Fesvau.v (Acrostichum, Swartz; Neuuo- 
I’LATYCEiios, Fee; Alcicornium vulgare, Oaudleltaud). — .4. 
very singular epiphytal evergreen Fern, a native of Madagascar, 
Java, and New Holland, requiring to bo cultivated in a warm 
greenhouse. Sterile fronds sessile, round or elongated, the 
upper portion sublobate, permanent, elevated, spongy, renifonu, 
and depressed. Fertile fronds simple, divided, horizontal or 
oblique, thick and coriaceous, twelve to fifteen inches long, 
widening upwards, white on the under surface, and articulated 
on a short slightly creeping rhizome. Sori amorphous in 
patches, occupying the lobes or extremities of the fronds, which, 
as in the other species, are densely covered throughout with a 
stellate pubescence. 
2. P. STEMMARiA, Bcsvaux (AcROSTiCHUM, Falisot de Fcauvais ; Nevroi’LATyceros iETHioRicus, Flukenet). 
An ornamental evergreen epiphytal Fern, from Western Africa. Sterile fronds sessile, elongated, ascending, 
upper part scarcely lobed, reniform, permanent, elevated, spongy and depressed. Fertile fronds simple, divided, 
horizontal, thick and coriaceous, one to two feet long, widening upwards, and articulated with the rhizome. 
Sori occupying the lobes. 
3. P. GRANDE, J. Smith (Acrostichuw, H. Cunningham; Neuroplatyceros, Platycerium biforme. 
Hooker in Comp, to Bot. Mag. — in part ). — One of the most singular of all Ferns, It is an cidphytal evergreen 
