ASPIDIUM, § POLYSTICHUM.

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in the centre, pinnse obtuse, lower ones pinnate at the basesegments mucronate, mucro short thick, upper pinnse sub-rhomboid auricled above crenulate mucronate at the apex. 55Polystichum viviparum, Fee , Gen. Ml. p. 280; 6me Mem.Fouff. p. 21. t. 3./. 3. Aspid. Metten . Aspid. p. 44. P. tra-pezoides, /?, Moore, Ind. Fil. p. 108 (name only).

Hab. Cuba , Linden, n. 1742. Jamaica , Purdie. —-I had occasion to remarkin the ‘ Filices Exotic®,' under Aspid. (Polystichum) triangulum, Sw., that itwould be no enviable task for any one to undertake to describe the differentexotic kinds of the Polystichum-^ow^ of Aspidium. I now feel very sensiblythe truth of that statement. M. Fee has given a faithful representation of thisFern, and I have copied his correct specific character; but different as this formassuredly is from the ordinary form of Aspid. triangulum, my var. y, I am quitedisposed to consider it as an intermediate state; in short, passing by its morecompound (partially bipinnate) into the ubiquitous and polymorphous Aspid. acu-leatum. (See observations on a form of our Aspidium aculeatum, under the S. Ame-rican (West Indian ) localities from Cuba .) Mr. Moore refers Fee ’s viviparum tohis P. trapezioides ; but what his trapezioides is we are not informed. The speci-men which I believe to be Swartz’s trapezioides , he has, and rightly too, referredto triangulum.

18. A. (Polystichum) tridens, Moore, MSS.; caudex shorterect clothed with conspicuous intensely ebeneous-blackscales with brown margins often ciliated, stipites 3-6 incheslong tufted fusco-paleaceous below, fronds 6-12 inches longoblong-lanceolate coriaceous acuminate, pinnae 1 inch longdeeply tripartite (rarely trifoliolate) the cuneate base taper-ing into a petiole, segments (or pinnules) linear-lanceolateacuminate spinulose the margin subspinuloso-serrate, upper-most pinnules linear-lanceolate and nearly entire, veins almostobsolete, sori in two rows submarginal, involucres peltate pedi-cellate fringed. (Tab. CCXV.)—Polystichum tridens, Moore,MS. in Herb. Hook.

Hab. Jamaica , rare; near Woburn Lawn, Port Royal, Purdie, 1840. ArntillyGap,Blue Mountains, elev. 3000 ft., Wilson —Unwilling as I am to sanction a specificname written in a private herbarium, without any character or description, thepresent one is too appropriate to he rejected. It will be seen by our figure, howextremely unlike it is to any known Polystichum ; yet upon one of my specimensOf P. triangulum, 0, a considerable number of pinnse are regularly trifurcate,though broader and shorter than these. I cannot think it possible it can be anabnormal form of that variable plant. My several specimens of this, indeed, fromtwo different collectors are very uniform.

19. A. (Polystichum) tripteron, Kze.; caudex short erectpaleaceous with brown ovate scales, stipites tufted a span toa foot high scaly below and as well as the rachis stramineousglossy, fronds 1-1 \ foot long submembranaceous flaccid