ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 



73 



PLATE 36 



PTERIS PAUPERCULA Christ 





POLYPODIACEAE 



PTERIS PAUPERCULA Christ in Bull. Geogr. Bot. Mans (1906) 131 ; C. Chr. Ind. Supl. 



67 (1906-13) ; Matthew in Journ. Linn. Soc. 39:389 (1911). 



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Rhizome thick, short, densely clothed in brown lanceolate subulate scales and so 

 is the stipe ; leaves densely fasciculate, numerous ; stipes erect, reddish-straminous, 

 terete, rigid and like rachis densely asperous with subulate and setaceous short spread- 

 ing brown slender scales, falling off at distance of 2-3 cm. above the base ; stipes of 

 sterile leaves 6 cm, long, those of the fertile 15 cm. long, the sterile/Vo^6 cm. long, 3 cm. 

 broad, oval-oblong, bipinnatifid; pinnae remote, about 5 on each side, the lowest shortly 

 petiolate, cut down nearly to the costa with lower segments forked again, the upper ones 

 adnately decurrent, simple or forked, segments obtuse, \ cm. long and broad, margin 

 double crenulate; the fertile frond n cm. long, 6 cm, broad, bipinnate; pinnae remote, 

 5-6 on each sid£, the lower ones pinnate into 5-6 pinnules, the upper ones simple, 

 pinnules linear, 4-5 cm. long, 2-3 mm. broad, acute, entire; veins hidden, twice or thrice 

 forced; color light green, surfaces glabrous, opaque, texture herbaceous, somewhat 

 pellucid; sori continuous to the apex, f mm. broad, indusium membranaceous, narrow, 

 lacerato-fimbriate. 



* 



Distribution: Szechwan. 



A remarkable fern discovered by E. H. Willson in W. China, 1973. In habit it 

 closely allied to P. ensiformis Burm. but differs in smaller dimension, much less 

 pronounced dimorphism between the fertile and sterile leaves and, particularly, by 

 densely scaly reddish-brown stipes and rachis, and double crenulate pinnules of the 

 sterile leaves. 



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Plate 36. Fig. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. A portion of fertile segment, dorsal side 

 (x 20). 3. Scale from the upper part of rachis (x 108). 4. Scales from the base of stipe (x 30). 5. 

 Venation and attachment of sori (x 40). 







