ae 
TRICHOMANES exxeays. 
Elegant Bristle-Fern. 
CRYPTOGAMIA FILICES.—Nat. Orv. FILICES, Div. Gynarx, Br. 
Gen. Cuar.—Sori marginales.. Capsule sessiles, receptaculo communt cy- 
lindraceo insertee, intra Involucrum monophyllum, suburceolatum, ore 
hiante, textura frondis.—Br. 
Trichomanes elegans ; frondibus stefilibu lanceolatis pinnatifidis i Jie 
fertilibus linearibus involucris pinnatis. 
Trichomanes elegans, Rupexr, Pl. Guian. ‘Fe 24. t. 35.—WILLD. 4 Pl. v. 5: 
p- 503. 
This singular plant has no apparent oanden ; its rather stout, wiry, brown, 
_ almost simple, longish Ls spring nese from the base of the 
fronds. 
Sterile Jronds 4 or 5 inches ia length, inectas acuminate, gradually taper- 
ing below into a short, dark-colored hispid stipes, cut deeply at. the 
margin into several, rather closely placed, oblong, obtuse segments, which 
are bluntly-toothed, and most so at the extremity. The texture is thin 
and delicate, minutely reticulated, the color dark green; through the 
centre runs a hispid rachis, and the Sige eg have a central and several 
lateral paralle] forked nerves. 
Fertile frond or spike about four inches in n length, placed upon a long pe- 
duncle; the Involucres arranged in a regularly pinnated manner, about 
2 lines in length, oblong or somewhat urceolate, tapering at the base, 
slightly curved, the mouth open. Recepiacle half as long again as the 
involucre, filiform ; its lower half covered with small, brown, shining 
capsules, sessile on their own base, having a complete, elastic, jointed, 
transyerse ring, and bursting irregularly for the pacha of the seeds. 
Beautiful as are the individuals, in general, af the genus 
_Trichomanes, this, in my opinion, excels them all, and amply 
deserves the specific name which has been appropriated to it. 
_ No species but the spresent, as far as I am aware, has.the in- 
volucrum placed in spikes, on a stalk distinct from the com- 
mon appearance of the fronds; nor has it apparently been. 
known to any author but Mr RvupGE, by whom it is published, 
VOL. I. 
