ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM. 
PEATE 220 
ADIANTUM VENUSTUM Don 
ADIANTACE 
ADIANTUM VENUSTUM Don, Prod. FI. Nepal. 17. 1825; Hook. Sp. Fil. 2: 40 t. 96 B. 1851; Hook. 
& Bak. Syn. Fil. 125. 1867; Clarke in Trans. Linn. Soc. II. Bot: 1: 453. 1880; Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. 
t. 20. 1865; Handb. Ferns Brit. Ind. 86. 1883; Christ, Farnkr. d. Erde 139. 1897; Diels in Engl. u. Prantl, 
Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1: iv. 284. 1899; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 35. 1905; in Journ. Wash. Acad, Sci. 17: 498. 
1927; Ching in Acta Phytotax. Sinica 6; 334. 1957. 
Adiantum microphyllum Roxb. in Cal. Journ. 4: 513. 1844. 
Rhizome slender, wide-creeping, clothed especially at the growing apex in reddish-brown broadly lanceo- 
late scales; fronds distant or proximate, erect, stipe 15-20 cm long, glossy, chestnut-red, glabrous, deeply 
grooved above, lamina oblong-ovate or deltoid-ovate, 15-25 cm long, and nearly as broad, tripinnate; pinnae 
5-6 pairs under the simply pinnate short apex, alternate, oblique, petiolate, the basal pair larger than those 
above, deltoid-ovate, bipinnate under the simply pinnate apex; pinnules of the Ist. order 45 pairs, the lower 
ones 5-6 cm long, about 3 cm broad, petiolulate, oblong, pinnate or 2-3-foliolate below; ultimate pinnules 
obovate-cuneate, 6-8 mm each way or longer than broad, petiolulate (petiolule 1-2 mm long, filiform), the 
upper edge round or irregularly so, provided with numerous small, deltoid, acutely dentate teeth, never aristate 
at apices; texture thin herbaceous, dry pale green, but often bluish or glaucescent beneath at maturity; veins 
fine, distinct, with one veinlet to each tooth; sori usually 1-2 or 3 to each pinnule placed in quite deep 
sinuses, indusium orbicular or round-reniform, submembranaceous, brown with thinner gray margin all 
round. 
Northwestern Szechuan: Soong-pan Hsien, .K. S. Fu 1699, alt. 3200 m.; Harry Smith 4546. Sikang: 
Tsa-wa-rung, C. W. Wang 65723, alt. 3200 m.; Tsai Yu-wen 5217, August 11, 1951. Yunnan: Tibetan 
border, Kingdon-ward 662 (1913); Ducloux 1322; San-tcha Ho, Delavay 2, June 12, 1887 (A. fimbriatum 
Christ, pro parte); Mekong-Salwin Divide, Dokola, K. M. Feng 5885, alt. 3100 m.; T. T. Ya 57729; Li- 
kiang, Snow Range, east flank, Black-white Water River, K. M. Feng 9151; Atuntze, Bei-ma Shan, C. W. 
Wang 69721, alt. 3000 m.; Weisih Hsien, Yeh-chih, C. W. Wang 68721, alt. 3600 m. in rock crevices, Kansu: 
Sining, Lan-ze-cheon Kou, south of the city, R. C. Ching 587, alt. 2650-3100 m. July 23, 1923, in moist 
forest. 
Also Northeast Himalayas and Afghanistan. 
This species, which is rather rare in West China, is closely related to A. Smithianum Ching, differing 
in the much smaller and narrower ultimate pinnules with acute deltoid teeth, and usually 1-2 or 3 sori with 
roundish indusia sunk in deep notches, and in bluish or glaucescent under side of the mature leaves. 
Plate 220. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Fertile pinna (X 4). 3. Sterile pinna (X 4). 
4. Scale from 
thizome (X 30). 5-6. Sporangium with spores (X 100). 
