ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 215 
ADIANTUM SOBOLIFERUM wallich 
ADIANTACE 
ADIANTUM SOBOLIFERUM Wallich, List n. 74. 1828 (nom. nud.); Hook. Sp. Fil. 2: 13, t. 74 A. 
1851; Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 16. 1867; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 33. 1905; Suppl. III. 197. 1933; Tagawa in 
Journ. Jap. Bot. 14: 309. 1938; Tard. et C. Chr. in Fl. Gen. Ind. 7: 181. 1940; Ching in Acta eas 
Sinica -6: 320. 1957. 
; Adiantum caudatum Hook. & Bak. Syn. Fil. 115. 1874 (pro parte). 
Adiantum caudatum var. soboliferum (Wall.) Bedd. Handb. Ferns Brit. Ind. 84. 1883. 
Adiantum Mettenii Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 65. 1865 (nom. nud.); Hook. & Bak. Syn. Fil. ed. he 472. 1874; v. A. 
vy. R. Handb. Mal. Ferns 326. 1908; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 30. 1905; in Dansk Bot. Ark. 7: 124, t. 48, 
fig- (42619325 -Ogatass ler shile sJap.32:rtq35 31 929. 
Adiantum lunulatum Burm. var. Mettenii (Kuhn) Bedd, Ferns Brit. Ind. Suppl. 6, t. 354. 1876; Handb. 
Ferns Brit. Ind. 83. 1883. 
Adiantum Balancae Bak. in Journ. Bot. 28: 263. 1890; Christ in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 6: 597. 1898. 
Adiantum alatum Copel. in Perkins Fragm. 192. 1905; Polyp. Phil. 93. 1905; A. Peter in Fedde, Rep. Sp. 
Nov. 40: 43. 1929. 
Adiantum lunulatum Ogata, Ic. Fil. Jap. 2: t. 53. 1929. (non Burm. 1768). 
Rhizome short, erect, densely radicose, clothed at the growing apex with some small, dark brown, firm, 
linear-lanceolate scales; fronds fasciculate, erect, or rarely nodding, stipe 12-16 cm long, dark chestnut-brown, 
stout, narrowly winged on each side, sparsely scaly or subglabrous, lamina as long as stipe, broadly lanceo- 
late, not narrowed towards the base, simply impari-pinnate, or sometimes the rachis prolongated into a 
whip-like stolon and rooting at the tip; pinnae 7-9 pairs, distant, spreading, or the lower ones somewhat 
deflexed, 2-3 cm long, 1-1.3 cm broad, subrectangular-oblong, subdimidiate, cut quite straight below, upper 
side of the base oblique-truncate, roundish, the upper edge also quite in a line but more or less deeply lobed 
especially towards the blunt apex; lobes 3-5, round, entire, petiole 2-3 mm long, stout and, like the entire 
rachis, is provided on each side with a brown, narrow often wavy wing, the terminal pinna (if present) 
flabellate, cuneate, the stolon (when present) often with a few smaller distant pinnae below; texture rather 
thickly chartaceous, both sides glabrous, dry brownish green; veins quite distinct below; sori transversely 
oblong or reniform, placed in sinuses, one to each lobe, about 3-5 to each pinna. 
Another widely distributed fern in Tropical and Subtropical Asia and Africa. In China, specimens 
have been seen from Southern Yunnan, Kwangsi, Hainan and Taiwan. Also Indo-China, India, Burma, 
Java and the Philippines. Type from N. India. 
The present species, though quite similar to 4. philippense L. in general habit, can be easily dis- 
tinguished by the presence on each side of stipe, rachis and petiole of a narrow brown wing, which is 
more or less wavy on the petiole, much thicker leaf texture and shorter sori. 
Plate 215. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Fertile pinna (X 2). 3. Sterile pinna, showing entire margin 
of lobes (X 2). 4. Cross section of stipe with a wing on each side. 5. Scale from the base of stipe (X 50): 
6-7. Sporangium with spores (xX 100). 
