32 
FERNS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 
both hemispheres, and many of them would be highly 
prized by fern-growers. Amongst other Guiana Ferns 
worthy of notice there is one to which I would wish 
particularly to draw attention, not only on account of 
its singularity, but of the little that is known of it by 
pteridologists. I allude to the Dancea simjplicifolia of 
Fudge, of which I have only seen two specimens, one 
in Fudge’s herbarium, and the other in Schomburgk’s 
Guiana collection. In general appearance the sterile 
fronds of this Fern resemble those of Elaplioglossum 
lab [folium, being about eight inches in length (including 
the stipes) and of an ovate-lanceolate form, attenuated 
to the base, while the fertile ones are narrower, and 
still more attenuated downwards. Nor must I omit 
to notice the very remarkable Hewardia adiantoides 
of French Guiana, still very rare in herbaria. It 
would be a noble addition to our large species of 
Adiantum, its fronds being two or three feet high, 
very broad, and irregularly bi-pinnate, with remote, 
alternate, petiolate pinnules from three to five inches 
long, and about two inches wide, and borne upon 
glossy black stipes. Closely allied to this is the 
Hewardia dolosa of Eastern Brazil, Surinam, and 
Ecuador, with much longer but comparatively nar- 
rower pinnules and i-ough hairy stipes. There is also 
in Dutch and British Guiana, as well as in Brazil (in 
the neighbourhood of Eio Janeiro), a species of the 
curious Schizceaceous genus, Actinastachys (A. pennula, 
Hook.), resembling the Ceylon A. dijitata, already 
in our gardens, though extremely rare. While 
the beautiful Schizcea flabellum , with its fern-shaped 
fronds, cleft into two to form broad wedge-shaped 
segments, and upon stipes a foot or so high, is found 
