ACTINIOPTERIS.

275

ceous, cylindrical, quite surrounding the sorus and includingthe receptacle, bursting open irregularly and longitudinally insuch a manner as to be imperfectly 2-valved .—Tropical Fernof the East Indies and Pacific Islands . Fronds ample, pin-nated, herhaceo-membranaceous. Pinna; large, numerous, ob-long-lanceolate, sessile, finely acuminated. Veins free, andforked near the base, and there only soriferous, anastomosinginto subhescagonal areoles towards the margin.

1. All. Brunoniana, Wall . PI. Asiat. Bar. p. 44. t. 52.Cat. p. 68. Hook. Gen. Fil. 1. c. Moore, Ind. Fil. p. 43. Hemi-dictyum ? Brunonis, Pr. Tent. Pterid. p. 111. t. 3. f. 25, 26.Asplenium Brunonianum, Metten . Fil. Hort. Lips. p. 71-Asplen.p. 170. Asplen. reticulatum, Wall . Cat. n. 188. A.Javanicum, Bl. En. Fil. Jav. p. 175.

Ilab. Tahiti, Nelson. Nepal and Sheopore, Wallich. Ceylon, Gardner , n.1057. Assam , Simons, Sikkim , elev. 6000 feet, Hook. fil. and Thomson. Java ,Blums , Millett. —This fine Fern is very different in habit and venation from theoriginal AUantodia umbrosa and A. australis, which can hardly with propriety beseparated from the Athyrium- group of Asplenium . It is true that, in both, theunexpanded involucre is oblong-cylindraceous; but the normal mode of burstingin the two now mentioned is at the superior margin, as in Asplenium : here itis at a distance from either side, so that, when burst, a portion remains attachedon each side the sorus. The general aspect of the Fern , as well as the venation,resembles Ilemidictyum: from which the involucres are totally different.

3. Actiniopteris, Link.

(Hook. Ic. Pl. tab. DCCCCLXXV.-VI. Asplenium ,Sw. and others. Blechnum, Pr. Acrostichum, Vahl, and

forests, form a majestic crescent three or four miles deep, with a chord of fifteenor twenty miles in length, raising themselves almost perpendicularly to a height of3000 or 4000 feet, a Ceterach abounds, varying through every possible gradeof form and magnitude, from our common dwarf dry-wall C. officinarum, withfronds 2-4 inches long, to splendid tufts of bright green and golden-ferruginousfronds, 12-18 or even 24 inches long, and presenting in their fullest develop-ment all the characters ascribed to C. aureum. In a less striking manner, be-cause on a wider field, I found the same in Grand Canary . There, in the lower,drier regions, you find only the smaller Madeiran form : in the higher and moister{eg. the remains of the ancient forest region of Doramas), you have the large,luxuriant plant of El Golfo. I could arrive in the Canaries, therefore, at noother conclusion than in Madeira, viz. that there is in both groups only onespecies, the extreme forms of which appear very different, but which pass imper-ceptibly into each other, and that the smaller forms cannot be distinguished fromC. officinarum, W. The locality in Hierro above specified is remarkable for therankness and luxuriance of all its vegetation. So is that of Grand Canary. ”