ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
BEATS. 93 
CHRISTOPTERIS TRICUSPIS (Hooker) Christ 
POLYPODIACEAE 
CHRISTOPTERIS TRIGUSPIS (Hooker) Christ, Journ. de Bot. France 21: 273 (1908); 
Bower, Ferns 111. 213 (1928). 
Acrostichum tricuspe Hooker, Sp. Fil. 5: 272 t. 304 (1864); Syn. Fil. 422 (1868). 
Gymnopteris tricuspis Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 53 (1866); Handb. Ferns Brit. Ind. 435 (1883); 
Christ, Farnkr. d. Erde 49 (1897); Diels, Nat. Pfl. Fam. 1: 4. 299 (1899). 
Cheiropleuria tricuspis, J. Sm. Hist. Fil. 139 (1875). 
Leptochilus tricuspis C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 187 (1906). 
Christopteris Eberhardtit Christ, 1. c. 
Rhizome wide-creeping, rather stout, epiphytic on the trunk of trees, densely 
scaly; scales atropurple, ovate-lanceolate, with very long, spreading hair-point; frond 
close, strongly dimorphous, stipe articulated to a prominent pseudopodium on the 
rhizome, about 30 cm long, that of fertile frond about twice as long, rather slender, 
straminous, naked, lamina of sterile frond deeply trilobed or 4-lobed, base cuneate, 
lateral lobes to 30 cm long, the middle one much longer, about 4 cm broad, entire, 
acuminate, texture subcoriaceous, rather soft, color light green, naked on both sides; 
veins obscure, but distinct against light, veinlets between the fine, wide-apart, lateral main 
veins copiously anastomosing with divaricating included veinlets; fertile lamina much 
elongate, tripartite nearly to the base with much contracted segments below z cm broad, 
and as long as the sterile ones, linear, strap-shaped, acuminate, ascendingly oblique; 
texture subcoriaceous; sori covering the entire underside except the costa and the very tip; 
paraphyses rather sparce, short, septate and branched; spores oblong-reniform, pellucide, 
greenish-yellow, smooth. 
Hainan: Ng Chi Leng, Ah Ping, C. L. Tso & N. K. Chun 44147, October 24, 1932. 
Sikkim: Darjeeling, 1,500 ft. alt. Also Burma and Tonkin. 
This remarkable fern, known previously only from Sikkim, has recently received 
a thorough anatomical study from Prof. Bower, who is of the opinion that it has its 
systematic relation to the genus Cheivopleuria. Christopteris Eberhardtit Christ from 
Tonkin appears by no means specifically different from the present species, except the 
sterile lamina being palmately divided, i. e. with five lobes. 
Plate 93. Fig. 1. habit sketch (natural size). 2. portion of a sterile segment, showing vena- 
tion (x2). 3. scale from rhizome (X50). 4. part of a cross section of a fertile segment, showing the 
diplodesmic venation and branched paraphyses associated with sporangia (16), after Bower. 5. spores 
(magnified). 
