COLLECTION OF FERNS GATHERED IN CENTRAL CHINA. 201 



Nephrodium {Lastrea) gracilescens, Hook. 



N. {Lastred) prolixum, Baker. A common Indian species not 

 known before in China. 



66* N. (Lastrea) piTBERiJLirM, Baher, n. sp. Stipe |-1 foot long, 

 slender, stramineous, scaleless. Lamina lanceolate, bipinnate, 9-10 

 inches long, 4-5 inches broad. Pinn^ moderately close, lanceolate 

 the lowest not reduced, the 4-5 lower pairs subequal, 2*2^ inches ^" 

 long, l inch broad at the middle, much less at the sessile truncate 

 base, cut down to the rachis or a narrow wing into rather ascending 

 toothed blunt lobes \ inch broad. Yeins fine distinct 8-9-jugate in the 

 pinnules, forked. Texture tender, membranous ; both sides, especially 

 the lower, finely pilose. Sori crowded, placed on the forked part of 

 the vein nearer the edge than the midrib, 12-20 to a pinnule ; invo- 

 lucre minute evanescent. Most recalls the Indian N. Jlaccidum^ but a 

 much smaller plant, with developed pinnules often entire, and the 

 teeth at most as broad as deep, round or deltoid. 



N. {Lmtea) erythrosorum, Hook. Typical plant and variety with 

 a dense scaly rachis. 



N. (Lastred) Boryanum, Baker. Already given as Chinese by Dr. 

 Hance. 



N. {Lasterd) setigeruMy Baker, var. calvatum. A variety nearly 

 destitute of hairs. 



Polypodium {Goniophlelium) niponicmn, Mett. A rare Japanese 

 species. 



287* P. (NiPHOBOLus) AssiMiLE, Bokev. Khizome wide-creeping, 

 a line thick. Scales lanceolate secund light brown, a line long. Fronds ^ 

 sessile linear- ligulate 2-3 inches long, 2-2^ lines broad at the middle, 

 blunt or subacute, narrowed very gradually to the base. Texture 

 very coriaceous. Upper side at first finely pilose, finally glabrous ; 

 tomentum of the lower thick, rather ferruginous. Yeining quite hidden. 

 Sori filling the upper third or rarely the upper half of the frond in a 

 continuous mass 3-4 deep between the edge and midrib imbedded in 

 the loose bristly iiairs. Barren fronds same shape as the fertile, but 

 rather shorter and blunter. Intermediate between P. fissum and P, 

 adnascensy var. varium, the tomentum not so thick or loose as in the 

 former. 



P. (Mphobolus) Lingua, Sw. The ordinary Chinese form, not the 

 Himalayan rar. Heteractis. 



282* P. (NiPHOBOLrs) Sheareri, Baler ^ n. sp. Ehizome wide- 

 creeping, 2 lines thick, the scales at the tip linear, acuminate, pale 

 brown, 2 lines long. Stipes crowded, articulated into a short phyllo- 

 pode, from which they fall away so as to leave it persistent on the 

 rhizome with a deep cup-shaped top. Stipes i-i foot long, dull brown, 

 naked. Blade entire lanceolate 5-6 inches long, with an equal broadly 

 rounded or slightly cordate base, 15-18 lines broad, bluntish or sub- 

 acute. Texture very coriaceous, the upper surface naked, the lower 

 clothed with very thin whitish tomentum. Veins quite hidden. Sori 

 as in tricuspe minute, in erecto-patent bands about 2 lines broad, 

 reaching from the midrib to the edge, about 6 across and 20-30 in 

 the series from midrib to margin. A very well-marked plant midway 

 between Lingua and tricuspe. 



29 7"^'. P. (PflYMATODEs) Lewisii, Baker ^ n. sp. Rhizome wide- /^ 



