Il I
Polypodiaceoe.
TAB. XL
O N Y C H IUM . Kaidf.
L e p t o s t e g ia . Don. A l l o s o u i s p e c . Presi.
Sori lineares vel oblongi solitarii, in maculas dispositi, vel totam pinnulam occupantes.
Indusia linearia, membranacea, marginalia vel siibmarginalia, per paria
opposita et conniventia, su tu ra longitudinali quasi dehiscentia. Sporangia pedicellata,
receptáculo marginali ad basin indusiì inserta.— Filices Indice Orientalis,
{unica Capensis,) cæspitosoe, graciles. Frondes stipitatæ, decoinposito-pinnatijidoe,
lacinîis angustis uninerviis, in partem fructificantem solummodo pinnaiim venosæ,
venis simplicibus ad marginem attingentibus et ibi confiuentibus, receptaculum spor-
angiorum formaniibus.
Onychium lucidum. ( T a b . X I .)— Cheiianthes lucida. Wall, in Herb. 1823. Cat. n.
69.— Leptostegia lucida. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nep. p . 14.
Other species of this genus are Onychium auratum, (probably the same with Pteris
chrysocarpa, Hook, et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 107, which is Lomaría aurea, Wall. Cat. n. 38, and
L . caruifolia, Wall. Cat. n. 39,) Cheilanthes contigua, Wall. Cat. n.72, Onychium Capense,
Kaulf. (fide Kaulf.), and a species in Captain Carmichaers Herbarium, in my possession,
marked Lomaría microptera, Br. All these are united by a natural habit, although the
fructified portions of O. auratum and micropterum are pinnated, and the pinnæ wholly occupied
by the sorus, whilst the barren portions are pinnatifidly divided, like the entire plant in
the other species, in which latter, moreover, the sorus occupies but a portion of the lacinia,
and the indusia are inserted, partially at least, a little within the margin. Still Presl may
be correct in uniting Onychium, or at least the O. auratum, with Allosorus. In all, I find
the fructified portion to give out pinnated veins (apparently overlooked in Mr Bauer’s
otherwise excellent figure) as in Allosorus crispus, Pr. {Crypiogamma, Br.)—tliese, however,
do not immediately bear the sporangia, but appear to unite at or very near the margin
into a longitudinal receptacle or marginal vein, on which the sporangia are situated.
F ig . 1. Under side of a portion of the frond ; magn. 3 diam.—/. 2. Smaller portion of d o ; m. 10
diam.—/ ! 3. Upper side of the same ; d o .—f . 4. Section of a lacinia, with a portion of the sorus ;
m. 25 diam.—/ . 5. Sporangia in various s ta g e s ; m. 100 diam f . 6. Sporules; m. 200 diam.
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