GLEICHENIACEÆ

1. Gleichenia dichotoma, Hook. Sp. Fil. -vol. i. p. 12; Schk. Fil. t. 148.

A species abundant all over India, and found likewise in tropical Africa and America.

DAVALLIACEÆ

2. Davallia tenuifolia, Sw. Syn. Fil. pp. 133 and 350; Willd. Sp. Pl. 5, p. 477; Hook. Sp. Fl. vol. i. p. 186.

Perhaps the most common of all ferns in China and Japan, scarcely a collection of plants ever arriving which does not contain numerous specimens; yet it is singular that no figure of it has ever been published. Willdenow mistook the Davallia venusta (Schk. Fil. 1.128) for it, but that is a South American species (D. clavata, Sw.), peculiar to the tropical islands of the New World, as D. tenuifolia is peculiar to the tropical continents and islands of the Old World.

3. Davallia Chinensis, Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 138; Hook. Sp. Fil. vol. i. p. 187; Langsdorff and Fisch. Fil. p. 23, t. 27 (excellent); Trichomanes Chinense, Osb. Voy. ed. Angl. 2, p. 357, t. 2, t. 6 (very good).

Our first knowledge of this species was derived from China, where it was detected, and first published, by Osbeck. It appears to be also sparingly found in the Malay Islands. It is always much larger, of a redder colour, and has much broader pinnules and segments than D. tenuifolia, which some, however, think is too closely allied to it.