ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 222 
ADIANTUM MUTICUM Ching 
ADIANTACE 
ADIANTUM MUTICUM Ching in Bull. Fan Mem. Inst. Biol. New Series 1: 268. 1949; in Acta 
Phytotax. Sinica 6: 339 1957. 
Rhizome short-creeping, oblique, moderately scaly, scales reddish-brown, narrowly lanceolate, acu- 
minate, rather firm; fronds subcaespitose, stipe 13-15 cm long, 1.5 mm across, dark castaneous, glossy, 
glabrous above the base, lamina 16-20 cm long, 10-13 cm broad, deltoid-ovate, short-acuminate, bipinnate 
or subtripinnate below; pinnae 6-7 pairs under the simply pinnate apical part, alternate, very oblique, long- 
petiolate, (petiole in the basal pinnae 1.5 cm long), subcontiguous, the basal pair only slightly larger than 
those next above, deltoid-oblong, 9-11 cm long, 34 cm broad, bipinnate or sometimes simply pinnate; 
pinnules 5-7 pairs under the smaller terminal one, alternate, oblique, petiolulate (petiolule 4 mm_ long, 
filiform), simple or the lower 1-2 pairs often 24-foliolate, gradually decrescent upwards; ultimate pinnules 
1-15 cm broad, 1 cm high, broadly flabellate, cuneate, much smaller towards apex, petiolulate (petiolule 
4 mm long), deeply bifid over halfway down with the each half again slightly bifid, the lobules may be 
again bifid or entire, each bearing one roundish, reniform or round-reniform sori connecting 3-5 veinlets, 
47 sori to each ultimate pinnule, and placed in deep sinuses; texture pellucido-herbaceous, dry light green, 
both sides glabrous; the sterile pinnules with entire or wavy margin, never serrate. 
Northwestern Yunnan: Hokin, Shan-chang, Chu-pei-ho, in wooded ravine, R. C. Ching 23383, July 
27, 1940, common, alt. 3000 m. 
This interesting fern more resembles A. capillus-veneris L, than A. edentulum Christ in general habit, 
from the former it differs in the sterile pinnules with entire or wavy margin, the shorter sori and the re- 
peatedly lobed pinnules, from the latter in much ample fronds, with broadly fan-shaped and _ repeatedly 
lobed ultimate pinnules and the numerous roundish sori to each pinnule. 
Plate 222. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Fertile pinnule (X 3). 3. The same, less divided (X 3). 4. 
Sterile pinnule, showing entire and wavy margin (X 3). 5. Scale from the rhizome (X 20). 6-7. Sporangium 
with spores (X 100). 
