gions it grows on treés of certain kinds’ and‘ rocks: Mr. 
_Brown’ found it’ constantly on the former on the’ southern 
coast of New Holland, and as*constantly on the latter at 
the northern coast of that country: ‘The following is: the 
version of the excellent description’ which: has been given: of 
the species by Dr. Swartz. fs 
A Fern of ‘singular structure. Lower or primordiate 
fronds barren, nearly flat, horizontal, a span or more 
in breadth, frequently reniform or kidney-shaped, rounded — 
or variously lobed at the edge, quite smooth, pul- 
vinate or padded in the centre, softish, membranously at- 
tenuated towards the edges, nettedly veined. Roots and 
radicles crowded together in a tuft underneath, long, of a 
rusty colour and covered with a cottony nap. Fertile or 
fruitbearing fronds rising from the centre of the others 
somewhat stalked and very much tapered towards the root, 
gradually widened and palmate or handshaped, flat, upright, 
sometimes two feet high, dichotomous or divided into pairs 
of unequal fingershaped obtuse segments; nerved, the nerves 
dichotomous prominent conjoining near the base in a round 
thick stipe or stem peculiar to the plants of this order: 
smooth on the upper side and green, on the under cottony 
and grey, though sometimes smooth, Young ones tender 
and entirely covered with a cottony nap, the nap consisting 
of close stellately compounded villi. The mass of fructifi- 
cations or inflorescence and seed is situated towards the 
top of the fronds, and covers either a part or the whole of the 
backs of the lobes or segments. Capsules extremely minute, 
of a rusty or cinnamon-coloured brown with shining rings 
or hoops, and crowded together in close lines or files. 
We saw very fine plants of this extraordinary species in 
the hothouse at the nursery of Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, at 
Hammersmith, on which the barren frond was nearly five 
inches in diameter, and grew flat upon the surface of the 
mould to which it was fixed by the fibrous radication from 
the under surface, and appeared much of the same nature 
as the broad flat brown fronds we see in some of our own 
Lichens or Liverworts. It was of a pale yellow green, very 
unlike that of the fertile fronds, entirely smooth, repand 
and shallowly lobed at the circumference. The fertile 
fronds in these specimens were not fructescent. Perhaps 
it is the nature of the barren ones to decay before these 
become fruitbearers?. 
