ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 86 
MICGROSORIUM PUNCTATUM (L.) Copeland 
POLYPODIACEAE 
MICROSORIUM PUNCTATUM (L.) Copeland, Orient. Gen. Polyp. in Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 
16: 111 (1929); Ching, Bull. Fan Mem. Inst. Biol. 4: 309 (1933) 
Acrostichum punctatum L. Sp. Pl. ed. II. 1524 (1763). 
Polypodium punctatum Sw. in Schrad. Journ. 1800?: 21 (1801); Christ, Farnkr. d. Erde 106 
(1897); C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 557 (1906). 
Polypodium iridioides Poiret in Encycl. Bot. 5: 513 (1804); Hooker et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 125 
(1831); Dunn et Tutcher, Fl. Hongk. & Kwangt. 352 (1912); Ogata, Ic. Fil. Jap. 2: pl. 136 
(1930). 
Microsorium irregulare Link, Hort. Berol. 2: 110 (1833); Fée, Gen. Fil. 268 t. 20B. f. (1850-52) 
Pleopeltis punctata Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. Suppl. 22 (1867); Handb. Ferns Brit. Ind. 357 
(1883). 
Pleopeltis irridioides Moore, Ind. Fil. LXXVII (1857); Bedd. Ferns S. Ind. t. 178 (1864). 
Rizome short-creeping, thick, subglabrous, epiphytic the on trunk of trees, or on 
rocks; scales sparce at the base of stipe, fusco-brown, clathrate, broadly ovate, acuminate, 
dorsally affixed, fallen off at last; frond subcaespitose or close together, erect, 35-55 cm 
long, 3-5 cm broad, broadly linear-lanceolate, acuminate, gradually narrowed down- 
ward, base long-attenuate, or often rotundo-cuneate or subauriculate, stipe thick, 
short or almost none, leaf-margin entire, or sometimes irregularly undulate; 
texture thin herbaceeus, or chartaceous when dried, perfectly naked, pale green 
on both sides; lateral veins and veinlets quite distinct, copiously anastomosing 
with divaricating included veinlets; sori medium-sized, dense, irregular, covering the 
whole of under surface in the upper part of frond, lemon-yellow, naked, generally apical 
on the included veinlets, irregularly fused. 
A widely dispersed epiphytic fern, ranging from Africa, Polynesia, Malesia, over 
India generally, Indo-China to South China and Formosa. In China, specimens have 
been seen from provinces Kwangtung (including the island Hainan), Kwangsi and the 
southern part of Kweichow. 
This fern was first described from plant from Canton by Linné under Acrostichum, 
presumably on the ground of the dense, naked, irregularly subconfluent sori much 
like those in Acrostichum. It is a very variable fern, particularly as to the 
shape of leaf-base even in the the specimens from the same region, which is sometimes 
gradually attenuate to quite a distinct, thick stipe, or sometimes only slightly narrowed 
quite down to the base into a broadly rotundo-cuneate or subauricled shape. 
Plate 86. Fig. 1. habct sketch (natural size). 2. scale from rhizome (X50), 
