CHARACTERS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 195 
99. Dicryopreris, Presl, in part. (1836). 
Polypodium, sp., auct., Hook., Sp. Fil, 
Vernation fasciculate, decumbent, or sub-erect. Fronds 
coriaceous, deltoid, bipinnatifid or bipinnate, 3 to 4 feet 
high, ultimate segments or pinnules sub-entire or sinuous- 
pinnatifid, Veins costeform, venules and veinlets anasto- 
mosing (rarely few free, excurrent), forming oblique some- 
what elongated areoles, the costal ones transversely 
elongated. Receptacles medial or compital. Sori round 
large, irregular or regular, or transversely one to two 
serial, sometimes crowded near the margin, naked. 
Type. Polypodiwm irregulare, Presl. 
Mast. Fée, Gen. Fil., p. 267, t. 81, A, £ 2; J. Sm., 
Fern, Brit. and For., fig. 62; Hook., Syn. Fil, t. 5, 
fig. 48, O. 
Oss.— This genus consists of a few large compound. 
fronded Ferns, natives of the East Indies, Malay, and Philip- 
nine Islands, and one is found in Tropical West Africa. In 
general habit they resemble the preceding genus, as also 
Aspidiwm, as here restricted, but differing in having a 
more simple anastomose venation, and from the latter in 
being destitute of an indusium; but the latter character 
is probably not always normal, for in cultivated plants of 
D. irregulare a very minute indusium was observed in the 
early stage of the sori, but as the sori increased in size 
it left no trace of its having been present. 
Ex. D. irregularis, Pr. (v v.) ; D. megalocarpa (Hook.) ; 
D. pteroides, Pr.; D. Cumingiana, Pr., in Epim. Bot. (v v.) 
(D. macrodonta, J. Sm., Gen. Fil, 1841, and Ferns, Brit. 
and For.) ; D. Camerooniana (Hook.) (v v.). 
Oss.—In the herbarium specimens it is difficult to ; 
separate the many forms as distinct species, but cultivated ` 
