﻿324 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 47 



being' slender, somewhat rigid except at the periphery of the frond, 

 very finely striate, sparsely and obscurely punctate, rounded dor- 

 sally, shallowly canaliculate ventrally. the ultimate rachis being 

 slightly flexuose and bordered by a very narrow wing of the decur- 

 rent lamina ; penultimate pinna? alternate or subalternate, open at or 

 nearly at a right angle, close, usually touching or overlapping some- 

 what, linear or linear-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, and provided 

 with large pinnatifid and fasciculately lobed pinnules above the 

 ultimate pinna;, the uppermost being sublobate or simple and nar- 

 rowly cuneate : ultimate pinnae alternate, subalternate, or sub-oppo- 

 site, close, more or less open, usually rigid, overlapping a portion of 

 their width, ovate to lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, obtuse or acute 

 when sterile, attenuated and curviramose above when fertile. Pin- 

 nules alternate to subopposite. of greatly varying size, 3 mm -18 mm. 

 in length, the lobes or divisions being 1 mm— 3.5 mm. in width, nar- 

 rowly cuneate, occasionally narrowly spatulate, the lateral margins 

 slightly convex above, often slightly concave near the narrow or 

 slightly subpedicellate base, the upper pinnules of the sterile pinnae 

 being very narrow and simple, becoming bifid, and bi-or tri-foliately 

 dissected to or nearly to the base in 3-5 palmately or somewhat 

 fasciculately radiating lobes or fully developed pinnules on an 

 elongating axis, the apices being rounded, or truncate-rounded, more 

 or less oblique, sometimes emarginate, the distal basal pinnule or lobe 

 being usually noticeably broader than the other lobes or pinnules in 

 the fascicle, while the proximal basal pinnule is often reduced in size, 

 and more narrowly lobed ; lamina very thin, decurring in an ex- 

 tremely narrow wing along the rachis, and minutely rugose-striate 

 when viewed under a strong lens. Nervation very thin, but usually 

 distinct and very slightly in dorsal relief : primary nerve strongly de- 

 current, forking once or twice at a wide angle in the base of the 

 pinnule the nervilles forking once or twice at narrower or moderate 

 angles, in passing upward, thread-like, often appearing double, 

 nearly parallel and not very close, to the apex of the pinnule in 

 which they often appear to slightly converge. 



Fertile portions of the frond peripheral, laxly ramose at the apices 

 and somewhat reduced as to lamina, the pinnules in the upper por- 

 tions of the pinnae becoming very small and distant, the lobes some- 

 times slightly thickened. Fructification {Wardia) small, rhom- 

 boidal, thin, deciduous, borne usually singly, but rarely doubly, in 

 sparsely paniculate arrangement at the dilated apices of thick 

 nervose-lineate, distantly, elongately, and faintly punctate, ramose 

 pedicles which correspond to the greatly elongated and thickened 



