468 
FILICES. 
[. DicJcsonia . 
in. broad, glossy, green, subcoriaceous, with a rather tomentose stout 
stiff rachis channelled down the front. Pinnae crowded, lanceolate, 
articulated at the base and falling away readily, the barren ones f 
in. broad, finely toothed, the fertile ones narrower, usually confined to 
the upper half of the frond. Veins except the midrib of the pinnae fine and 
indistinct. Involucre forming little round marginal lobes along both 
borders of the fertile pinnae, the outer lip formed by the indurated edge 
of the frond, the inner one also rigid and semicircular, rather smaller. 
Nephrolepis abrupta, Mett. ; Kuhn , Fil. Afr. 154. Leptopleuria, Fresl. 
Mauritius, on decayed timber in the forests of Plaines Wilhelms, Sir Henry and 
Lady Barlcly / Also Bourbon and Madagascar. 
2. D.anthriscifolia, Hook, and Baker, Syn. Fil. 53. Pronds 
ample, decompound, membranous, quadripinnatifid, f-1 foot broad, 
with a pale brown rachis ; the ribs of the under side of the frond more 
or less bristly. Pinnae and pinnules lanceolate, cut away on the 
lower side at the base. Ultimate segments oblong, obtuse, adnate, in- 
ciso-crenate, T x ¥ in. broad. Veinlets free, distant, distinct, erecto- 
patent. Sori minute, placed just within the margin at the tip of a 
veinlet. Involucre plate-like, pale, membranous. Adiantum fragile, 
Bojer , Hort . Maur. 405, not Siv. 
Mauritius, in the woods of Grandport and Savanne. Also Bourbon and Mada- 
gascar, and scarcely distinct specifically from D. rubiginosa of America. 
6. DAVALLIA, Smith. 
Capsules stalked, splitting transversely, with an incomplete vertical 
ring. Sori marginal or intramarginal, placed at the tip of a vein, 
globose or oblong. Involucre adpressed to the surface of the frond, 
oblong or round or broader than long, persistent, free or open at the 
sides. — Habit and cutting very various. Texture coriaceous or mem- 
branous. Veins free in all the Mauritian species. Distrib. Tropical 
regions, principally of Asia. Species 30. 
Frond coriaceous, glabrous. 
Bootstock wide-creeping, with distant fronds. 
Frond small, simply pinnate 1. D. pedata. 
Frond large, decompound 2. D. elata. 
Bootstock short-creeping, with close fronds, with 
cuneate segments 3. D. tenuifolia. 
Frond membranous, pilose 4. D. spelunc.®;. 
Frond membranous, glabrous, with segments truncate, as in 
Lindsaya, on the lower and inner edge. 
Frond simply pinnate, with a very short stipe . . . 5. D. repens. 
Frond bipinnate, with a produced stipe 6. D. Hornei. 
1. D. pedata, Sw. j Hook, and Baker , Syn. Fil. 89. Bootstock wide- 
creeping, superficial, in. thick, clothed with smali lanceolate adpressed 
ferruginous scales. JStipe 1-3 in. long, with a few scattered minute 
