ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 119 
BOLBITIS HETEROCLITA (Presl) Ching 
POLYPODIACEA 
BOLBITIS HETEROCLITA (Presl) Ching in C. Chr. Ind. Fil. Suppl. III. 48 (1934). 
Acrostichum heteroclitum Presl, Rel. Henk. 1: 15 t. 2. f. 2 (1825). 
Pecilopteris heteroclita Presl, Tent. Pterid. 242 (1836). 
Heteroneuron heteroclitum Fée, Acrost. 92 (1845). 
Chrysodium heteroclitum Kuhn, Ann. Lugd. Bat. 4: 294 (1869). 
Leptochilus heteroclitus C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 385 (1905). 
Campium heteroclitum Cop. Phil. Journ. Sci. 37: 396 (1928). 
Acrostichum flagelliferum Wall. ex Hk. et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 23 (1827); Hk. Sp. Fil. 5: 258 (1864); 
Hk. et Bak. Syn. Fil. 418 (1867); Clarke, Trans. Linn. Soc. II. Bot. 1: 579 (1880) 
Bolbitis flagellifera Schott, Gen. Fil. ad t. 14 (1834). 
Gymnopteris flagellifera Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. Suppl. 27 (1876); Christ, Farnkr. d. Erde 49 (1897) 
Diels in Engl. u. Prantl: Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1: 4. 201 (1899). 
Pecilopteris flagellifera Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 112 (1865); Handb. Ferns, Brit. Ind. etc. 433 
(1883); J. Sm. Hist. Fil. 137 (1875). 
Rhizome thick, creeping, densely scaly; scales fusco-brown, ovate-lanceolate, 
peltately attached, subentire; frond 1 cm apart, dimorphous, stipe straminous, 
bisulcate above, sparcely scaly, 15 cm long or longer, sterile lamina varies from 
simple lanceolate to pinnate with 1-5 pairs of pinne under the much elongated 
lanceolate, free end-pinna, terminated in a prolongated rooting tip; lateral pinnxe 
10-15 cm long, 3-4 cm broad, subsessile, broadly lanceolate, acuminate, base 
rotundo-cuneate, margin undulate with a. few remote, setiform teeth; texture thin 
herbaceous, blackish upon drying, glabrous on both sides; lateral main veins dis- 
tinct, intervening veinlets angularly anastomosing in quadri-angular or hexagonal 
exappendiculate areole, 3-rowed between main veins, veinlets free towards mar- 
gin; fertile frond conform, on much longer stipe; pinne greatly contracted; sori 
following the course of veinlets, confluent all over the under surface at last. 
Yunnan: Mengtze, Henry 10825; Red River, Hancock 176; Szemeo, Henry 
12907. Kwangtung: North River, Ford, Sept. 1879. Szechwan: Mt. Omei, EZ. Faber 
1042. Hainan: Hoichow, Hancock 10. Kweichow: Houang-tsao-pa, Cavalerie 7018, 
7059; Lo-fau, Cavalerie 7645. Kwangsi: Tsin Lung Shan, Lin-yin Hsien, R. C. 
Ching 6869 (1928). 
Tonkin: Mt. Bana, Balansa 1887 (1886). 
Also India generally, Malesia-Polynesia and the Philippines. 
A very distinct but extremely variable fern with frond varying from simple 
to fully pinnate with terminal pinna always prolongated and rooting at apex. 
Leaves invariably turn blackish, when dried. 
A form with leaf margin deeply crenate, var. crenata Ching, var. nov., is 
noted from Mculmein (leg. Parish, herb. Kew), Tenasserim (leg Geo. Gallatly 64, 
herb. Kew) and Christmas Island (leg. C. W. Andrews 126, herb. Mus. Brit.). 
Plate 1r9. Fig. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Portion of sterile pinna, showing venation 
(x 4). 3. Portion of fertile pinna {x 4). 4. Scale from rhizome (x 20). 5. Spores (x 300). 
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