








236 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
the Ural range, in the Altai, in Siberia in the region of the Lake 
Baikal; in Sitka, Kamtschatka and China; all over India from 
Nepal and the chain of the Himalaya to the Peninsula and Ceylon ; 
in Penang, Java, and the Philippines; in the Isle of Pines, and in the 
Sandwich Isles. In Africa, it occurs at the Cape of Good Hope, and in 
Abyssinia; in Sierra Leone and Senegambia, and at Fernando Po; in 
the Mauritius and Bourbon ; in Northern Africa at Algiers; and in 
the Atlantic Isles of Teneriffe, Madeira, the Canaries, the Azores, and 
the Cape de Verds. In America it has been found in California ; in 
Guatemala, North-West Mexico, Veragua, and Pernambuco; and 
in several parts of North America, e. g., Canada, Massachusetts, 
Kentucky, etc. 
The Pteris lanuginosa of Bory, under which name Agardh includes 
Thunberg’s P. capensis, is not distinguishable as a species from P. 
aquilina, the approximate segments and nodose base of the rachides 
being both equally found in British specimens of P. aquilina ; whilst 
the woolliness or pubescence of the surface is too variable to be much 
relied on: lanuginosa itself, moreover, sometimes having the seg- 
ments distinct. Hence we are unable to separate it as a permanent 
and clearly marked variety, though its various forms appear to be 
analogous to those undivided British sub-forms we have called 
integerrima. In like manner, the P. recurvata, firma and Wightiana 
of Wallich, and the P. excelsa of Blume, offer no distinguishing 
specific characters, but accord with our sub-variety integerrima. The 
P. caudata of the West Indies and the Southern United States, with 
long narrow-tailed divisions, may be considered a fairly marked 
variety; as may also the broad-pinnuled form, P. latiuscula of 
Desvaux, figured by Schkuhr (t. 96 b) under the name of P. caudata, 
a native of North and North-West America, and found also in the 
Madeiras. The Pteris esculenta of Australasia presents an appreci- 
able character, in the short interjected lobe developed between the 
ordinary segments of the pinnules, and might without inconvenience 
be kept distinct, including as varieties the South American P. 
arachnoidea of Kaulfuss, and the Indian P. semihastata, densa, and 
dorigera, of Wallich. 
In former times this common Fern seems to have had a medi- 

