ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 130 
POLYSTICHUM OTOPHORUM (Franch.) Beddome 
POLYPODIACE 
POLYSTICHUM OTOPHORUM (Franch.) Beddome, Handb. Ferns, Brit. Ind. etc. 
Suppl. 42 (1892); Diels in Engl. u. Prantl: Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1: 4. 190 (1899) ; 
C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 585 (1905); Acta Hort. Gothob. 1: 68 (1924); Christ, Bot. 
Gaz. 51: 345 (1911). 
Aspidium otophorum Franch. Souv. Arch. Mus. II. 10: 116 (1887). 
Rhizome thick, short, erect, densely scaly; scales large, dark brown, ovate- 
acuminate, fimbriate; fronds caespitose, stipe 5-10 cm long, clothed in dense 
spread, lanceolate blackish and fibrillose scales, lamina lanceolate, 15-22 cm long, 
4-5 cm broad, pinnate under the short, pinnatifid, acuminate apex; pinnx 20-20- 
jugate, patent, shortly petiolate, the basal ones deflexed and as long as those 
above, 2-2.5 cm long, 7 mm broad above the base, which is provided above with 
a prominent auricle, either adnate or free, obliquely cuneate below, margin re- 
gularly serrate with long aristate teeth; texture rigidly coriaceous, rachis and 
underside of pinne more or less fibrillose-scaly; veins pinnate in auricle, 3-forked 
upwards; sori small, nearer to the margin than to the costa, terminating the an- 
terior basal veinlet of each group above the auricle, indusium coriaceous, round- 
ed. 
Szechwan: Moupin, David (type) (1890); Mt. Omei, EF. H. Wilson 2624, 
2596, 2598,5363A ; Brown 26, 136; Kuan Hsien, F. T. Wang 20422 (f. typica); Tang 
Ho, Legendre 1614; Yu-chi-kou, Harry Smith 2354; T. T. Yui 4611, 2742 (f. ad 
P. aiphophyllum). 
' A very pretty and distinct. endemic species of the group of P. lobatum (L.) 
of Northern Europe. The nearest Chinese relative to this fern is P. xiphophyllum 
(Baker) from Mt. Omei, which differs chiefly in bipinnatifid frond of much 
larger size. 
Plate 130. Fig. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. A pinna from a larger form (natural size). 3. 
Pinna from the typical form (x 3). 4-5. Scales from stipe (x 14). 
