CHARACTERS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 97 
** Fronds pinnate. 
C. decurrens (Radd.) (v v.); C. Fendleri, Eaton. 
14. NirHoBoLvs, Kaulf (1824). 
Polypodium sp., auct. ; Hook. Sp. Fil. 
Surculum short or elongating. Fronds cæspitose or dis- 
tant, simple linear-lanceolate, oblong elliptical or obovate- | 
subrotund, rarely lobed, from less than an inch to two or 
three feet long, thick and fleshy or coriaceous, covered with 
sessile or stipate, white or brown stellate pubescence ; 
the fertile usually more or less contracted and longer than 
the sterile. Veins obscure, undefined, or evident and 
. Costæform ; venules compound anastomosing. Receptacles 
Ee punctiform, immersed, terminal or medial, on simple or 
. brachiate free veinlets, or compital. Sori round or oval 
 sub-transverse multiserial or biserial between the primary 
veins, or irregular and confluent, imme through the 
dense stellate pubescense. 
Type. Polypodium adnescens Sw. 
Illust. Hook. and Bauer, Gen. Fil. t. 83; Hook., Ex. Fil. 
t. 162; Moore, Ind. Fil. p. 61; J. Sm., Ferns, Brit. 
and For. fig. 26 ; Hook, Syn. Fil. fig. 48. k. 
Oss.—'This genus is readily known by the thick coria- 
ceous fronds being covered with stellate pubescence, which 
gives them a hoary appearance when young; in some 
Species this pubescence nearly disappears in age, e — 
on the upper side of the frond. 
_ About forty species have been named and described by 
‘different authors, but a critical examination has led me to 
believe that not more than one-half of that number are 
distinct species. In the “Species Filicum,” the number 
ped to p which I believe might be still 
