TAB. CVIII. 



POLYPODIUM HETEROMORPHUM 



FILICES. GYRATiE. Bl\ 



Polypodiace^. Kaulf. Filices verae. Willd., Spreng. 



Gen. Ghar. POLYPODIUM, Swartz. Sori subrotundi (seriati, sparsi vel conferti). Invo- 



lucrum nullum. Br. 



Polypodium heteromorphum, simplex vel ramosum, hirsutum, pinnatum ; pinnis breviter petiolatis 



ovalibus subintegris vel oblongis pinnatifidis,, soris in singula vena solitariis. 

 Hab. In rupibus humidis prope verticem montis Pichinchse, Andium Peruvianarum. D. Prof. 

 Gul. Jameson. 



Planta valde polymorpha, ubique hirsuta. 



Stipes ut et rachis, filiformis, hirsutus. 



Frons, circumscriptione, linearis, palmaris ad spithamaeam, nunc simplex, flexuosa, nunc bis terve dichotoma, 



ramis pinnatis, pinnis remotiusculis semiunciam fere ad unciam longis, brevissime petiolatis, ovalibus, et tunc 

 marginibus integris vel subintegris, vel oblongis pinnatifidis vel sinuato-pinnatifidis, lobis obtusissimis, ubique 

 hirsutis, pilis longis versus basin ramosis, nunc stellatim divisis. Color fusco-viridis. 



Sori in singula vena solitarii, rotundati. 



Capsulce annulo fere completo cinctse, pedicellatae. 



Semina subtriangularia flavescenti-fusca. 



Fig 



Polypodium heteromorphum statu simpliciter pinnata. f. 2. Idem, rachi dichotome divisa, pinnisque 



libus integ 



f. 2. Idem, pinnis sinuato-pinnatifidis et pinnatifidis : — magn 



f. 3. Pinna, cum soris 



f. 4>. Pili. f. 5. Capsulae. f. 6. Semina : — magn. auct 



This is a very singular and interesting species of Polypodium, like none of the genus with which 



we are acquainted, or which we can find described in books. Indeed, so variable are the specimens 



from the same tuft, as gathered by Professor W. Jameson " upon the top of the mountain Pichincha, 



that if several 



?* 



The 



growing in large patches, straggling or hanging over the face of the dripping rocks 

 of them were seen separately, they might well be supposed to constitute distinct species 

 simple-fronded specimens have some affinity in their mode of growth with Asplenium Trichomanes 

 and viridis, but those with the divided fronds have the ramifications as regularly dichotomous as in 

 the Gleichenia: were this not the case, we might have supposed that the ramification depended 

 upon innovations, or proliferous shoots. 



