ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 161 
ONYCHIUM CONTIGUUM (Wall.) Hope. 
POLYPODIACE/ 
ONYCHIUM CONTIGUUM (Wall.) Hope, Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc. 13: 444 (1901); Ching 
Lingnan Sci. Journ. 13: 498 (1934). 
Cheilanthes contigua Wall. List. no. 72 (1828, nom. nud.). 
Onychium japonicum var. intermedia Clarke, Trans. Linn. Soc. II. Bot. 1: 457 (1880); Kiimmerle. 
Amer. Fern Journ. 29-30: 135 (1929-30). 
Onychium lucidum Bedd, (non Spr. 1827) Ferns Brit. Ind, t. 21 (1865); C. Chr. Ind. Fil. Suppl. 
III. 133 (1934). 
Onychium japonicum Hk. et Bak. Syn. Fil, 143 (1867); Bedd. Handb. Ferns Brit. Ind. (1883); C. 
Chr. Ind. Fil. 469 (1905) pro parte. 
Onychium japonicum var. lucidum Kiimmerle, 1. c., pro parte. 
Onychium cry ptogrammoides Christ in Lecomte, Not. Syst. 1: 52 (1911). 
Rhizome short, erect or procumbent, densely redicose, apex clothed in lanceolate, 
light castaneous scales; fronds subcaespitose, stipe 25-35 cm long, pale straminous, always 
black near the base, glabrous, lamina 15-25 cm each way, broadly ovate, pentagonous, 
acuminate, very finely 5-pinnate; pinnae 8-14-jugate, the basal pair much the largest, trian- 
gular, acuminate, all long-petiolate, very oblique, pinnules of second and third orders all 
petiolate, confert; ultimate segments linear-lanceolate, apiculate, entire, 3-5 mm long; 
texture herbaceous, pale green, naked on both sides, veins fine, one to each segment; sori 
linear, short, consisting of 4-6, or rarely 9 sporangia on each side, indusium large, broad, 
membranaceous, pale gray, entire, reaching costule from both sides and persistent. 
Yunnan: Kiao-kia, Duclonx 6971, 5049 (type of O. cryptogrammoides Christ), 
August, 1911; Tong-chow, #. E. Maire 1379. 2096, 2774, 1484 (1913); Without locality, G. 
Forrest 285, 6068. Szechwan, Huei-li Hsien, T. T. Yu 1479, Sept. 10, 1932, under 
woods; W. P. Fang 6869; Feng-hsiang-ying, Narry Smith 1880. 
Tibet: Yatung, Hobson (1897). 
Siam: Without locality, H. B. J. Garrett 458. 
North-eastern India and Himalayas generally (type from Nepal). 
In my recent monograph, I have treated at some length of the nomenclatural con- 
fusion for this very distinct fern, which was generally considered as identical with the 
widely dispersed 0. ja ponicum Kze., from which our fern can always be distinguished by 
more finely divided lamina of a pentagonous outline, on proportionally longer pale-colored 
stipe always with nearly black basal part and by shorter sori with larger, broader, nearly 
bullate persistent indusium reaching the costule from both sides. 
Plate 161. Fig. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Portion of sterile frond, showing venation 
(x 10). 3. Portion of fertile frond (x Io). 4. Soriferous segment, with one indusium open(x 16). 5. 
Cross section of stipe (x 6). 6. Scale from rhizome (x 27). 7. Cross section of rhizome (x 6). 
