FILICES. 141 



GENUS XV.— $ OOLOPENDRIUM. Smith. 



Fronds produced from the apex of the caudex, tufted, suhcoriaceous, 

 simple entire or lobed. Stipes not articulated to the caudex. Veins 

 forked, free. Scales clathrate, composed of oblong cells with thickened 

 boundaries as in all the true Asplenia. Sori linear, attached along 

 the side of the veins, approximated in pairs, the anteriorly placed 

 sorus of one vein being so close to the posterior sorus of the next vein 

 above it, that the two appear to form but a single sorus. Indusium 

 linear, attached along the vein, and from their approximation each 

 pair resembles a single indusium, opening down the middle of the 

 compound sorus. 



Name from Scolopendra, a centipede, the sori being supposed to resemble the legs of 

 the animal. 



SPECIES I.-SCOLOPENDRIUM VULGARE. Symom. 



Plate 1884. 



Babenh. Crypt. Vase. Europ. Exsicc. No. 31. 



S. officinarum, Swartz. Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 83. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et 



Helv. ed. ii. p. 984. Babenh. 1. c. No. 31. 

 S. officinale, DC. Willh. & Lange, Prod. Fl. Hisp. Vol. I. p. 5. 

 S. Phyllitis, Both, Fl. Germ. Vol. III. p. 47. 

 Phyllitis Scolopendrium, Newm. Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. ii. p. 10, and ed. iii. p. 272 ; and 



Phytol. 1851, App. vi. 

 Asplenium Scolopendrium, Linn. Spec. Plant. No. 1537. 



Caudex thick, dividing into numerous crowns. Fronds several from 

 each crown, ascending, arching backwards or pendulous when large. 

 Stipes short, ^ to \ the length of the lamina, purplish-brown, clothed 

 with partially deciduous scales ; scales at the very base of the stipes 

 broadly lanceolate acute or acuminate, those higher up much smaller 

 and narrower, glandulose ciliate at the base, with long hair-like 

 points ; upper ones and those on the rachis longer and still more 

 resembling woolly hairs ; all of them at first silvery white, ulti- 

 mately rust-coloured. Lamina coriaceous, evergreen, shining and 

 glabrous above, paler and with hair-like mostly deciduous scales 

 beneath, strapshaped or elliptical-strapshaped or oblong-strapshaped, 

 tapering slightly to the base, which is cordate or rarely sagittate, 

 tapering towards the apex, which is acute or acuminate, entire 

 or repand, rarely crenate-lobed. Veins forking, a few of them 

 sometimes anastomosing. Rachis more or less purplish-brown in the 

 lower portion beneath, with scattered hair-like scales beneath. Sori 



