ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM . 53 



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PLATE 27. 



PHYLLITIS CARDIOPHYLLA (Hance) Ching 



DOLYPODIACEAE 



PHYLLITIS CARDIOPHYLLA (Hance) Ching, Comb. nov. 



Micropidium cardiophyllum Hance in Journ. Bot. (1883) 268. 



Asplenium cardiophyllum Baker in Ann. 601.5:311 (i8qi); C. Chr. Ind. (iqo6); Matthew in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc. 39: 344 (1911). 



Rhizome terete, wide-creeping, 3-4 mm. across, clad in dense, minute shining 

 brown, spreading setae; stipes 2-5 cm. apart, uniseriate, slender, flexible, somewhat 

 mcrassate at the base, shining ebeneous, 3-srdcate on the upper side with the middle 

 groove the broadest, all extending from the base up to the apex, broadly keeled on the 

 under side, to 20 cm. or more long, scarcely 2 mm. broad at the base, not articulate 

 to the rhizome; frond simple, deeply cordato-ovate in outline, acuminate, with broad 

 rounded, sometimes rotundo-truncate auricle on each side at the base, 10-15 cm. long, 

 7-10 cm. broad, margin entire, usually somewhat obscurely undulate, very rarely 

 sinuate, basal sinus 5-10 mm. broad, 2-3 cm. deep, usually open, sometimes close by 

 the imbrications of the auricles; texture chartaceous, glabrous, pellucid, light green 

 above, pale below, costa rather prominent below except towards the apex, the lower 

 half similar to the stipe in coloration, inconspicuous above, lateral veins very fine, 

 scarcely seen on the under surface, but very distinct when held up against light, 

 obliquely patent, 1.5—2.2 mm. apart, parallel, 3-4-dichotomously branched and meet- 

 ing once or twice near the margin forming mostly one sometimes two rows of narrowly 

 linear areolae between the costa and margin; with somewhat thickened mostly free or 

 sometimes connivent apex ended submarginally; sori linear, 2-3 cm. rarely more 

 long, nearer to the costa than the margin, about 1-1.5 cm. from the margin, 3-5 mm. 

 or farther from the costa, the lower ones often scolopendrioid, the upper ones usually 



asplenioid^ inducia of ,the same shape as the sori, membranaceous, grayish-white, 

 margin entire. 



Distribution: Endemic in the Island of Hainan, S. China, also known in Formosa. 



Plate 27. Fig. I. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. A lower portion of frond, showing venation 

 and sori (x 2J). 3. Sporangia (x 116). 4. Scale from rhizome (x 40). 



This interesting little fern was first collected in the Island of Hainan by Rev. B.C. Henry, 

 November 20, 1882 and named by Dr. Hance as Micropodium cardiophyllum which was changed later 

 to Asplenium by Baker and has remained as such ever since. A recent careful examination of an 

 ample stock of materials from Hainan* has vividly convinced me of considering this species most fit 

 as a legitimate member of Phyllitis by the presence of its scolopendrioid sori on the lower part of the 

 froud, although they all gradually become asplenioid as go upward. Of about 50 plants examined 

 by me, I frond that about one-third, which are in full fruitification, exhibits the character peculiar 

 to the genus, and, moreover, that the scolopendrioid sori seem mostly confined to the lower one-third 

 of the frond; while those in the upper 2-3 are almost all strictly of asplenioid nature. It is most 

 likely that the type specimens for Micrapodium cardiophyllum Hance are plants with sori in asplenioid 

 condition as I have seen most of the plants are in, that perhaps chiefly accounts for the uncertainty 

 of systematic position for the present species. Besides the asplenioid character of the sori on the 

 upper part of the frond, it is very interesting, however, to note that while some of the sori are 

 strictly of scolopenrioid nature, i. e. they are in opposite pairs, with their indusia directly opening 

 towards each other, there are good many others, which are separated by one or more intervenning 

 veins of the same group and still some others which are not in connvinent pairs, opening face to face, 

 but either opening downward or upward singly. In spite of this deviation the reason for which was 

 quite explicitely explained by W. J. Hooker (cf Sp. Fil. IV. p. I), it seems most fit to incoporate this 

 plant in Phyllitis or Probably better still to remove into a distinct genus intermediate between 

 Asplenium and Phyllitis as the nature of the its inducia indicate. In view of the presence of distinct 

 midrib and the anastomozination of the veinlets towards the margin, the present species naturally 

 falls in ANTIGRAMME Presl, Diels in Engl, and Prantl. Nat. Pfl. Fam. I: 4, 232 f. 124, E., a 

 section of about 4 or 5 species endemic in Brasil. The present species differs from its far-off 

 relatives by wide-creeping rhizome, deeply cordate-ovate frond of pellucid chartaceous texture, 

 etc. The Japanese P. ikenoi (Mak.) C. Chr. exhibits, among other characters identical to the 

 present species, the same irregularity in the nature of sori, and might perhaps be well regarded 

 as identical to our species.— R. C. C. 



*I wish to tender my heartiest thanks to Prof. F. A. McClure, the College of Sciense, 

 Lingnan University, Canton, for his courtesy in handing over to me for examination all the material 

 at his disposal.— R.C.C. 



