ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 228 
LEPTOGRAMMA MOLLISSIMA (Fisch.) Ching 
THELYPTERIDACEZ 
LEPTOGRAMMA MOLLISSIMA (Fisch.) Ching in Sinensia. 7: 102 t. 9. 1936. 
Gymnogramma mollissima Fisch. ex Kunze in Linnaea 23: 255, 310. 1850. 
Gymnogramma totta Hook. Sp. Fil. 5: 138, 1864; Hook. & Bak. Syn. Fil. 376. 1867 (pro parte). 
Dryopteris africana C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 250. 1905; Suppl. III. 80 1933 (pro parte); Ogata, Ic. Fil. Jap. 1: t. 
20. 1928, zane 
Leptogramma Loveii Nakai in Bot. Mag. Tokio 45: 103. 1931 (non J. Sm. 1841). 
Rhizome short, erect, or oblique, densely radicose; fronds caespitose, stipe 20-30 cm or longer, stra- 
mineous, rather strong, copiously clothed in dark brown, broad-lanceolate and setose scales and also 
spreading setose needle-like gray Aairs, which extend upwards throughout the rachis, lamina 20-35 cm long, 
10-20 cm broad, oblong, acuminate, base not narrowed, simply pinnate; pinnae 15-20 pairs under the pin- 
natifid apical part, patent, separated by broad sinuses below, closer upwards, the lower 6-8 pairs free and 
subsessile, the upper ones becoming more and more adnate upwards, the basal pair as long as the upper next 
one, or even longer, horizontally patent, often subfalcate and slightly broader above the contracted lower 
side of the base, the middle ones 5-10 cm long, 1-1.5 cm broad, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, base equal, 
truncate, pinnatisect to half way down into many oblong, rounded and oblique lobes; texture herbaceous, 
dry brownish-green, rachis and both sides with spreading, needle-like long gray hairs; veins in the lobes 
5-6 pairs, oblique, curved, only the anterior basal vein runs to the sinus; sori elongate-oblong, along the 
several lower veins, setose, due to the setose sporangia. 
Fukien: Sih-Ya-ling on the border of southern Chekiang, Chiu Pei-chih 109, August, 1953. Taiwan: 
Mt. Arisan. 
Widely distributed from Southern India, Ceylon, East China to Taiwan and Japan as far north as 
Hokaido and Korea. In China however, it is a rare fern. Plants from West China previously referred to 
the present species should be: 
‘Leptogramma yunnanensis Ching, sp. nov. 
Fronde anguste elongata, plerumque 6-8 cm lata, pinnis lateralibus obliquis, brevioribus latioribusque, 
45 cm longis, 1.2-1.7 cm basi latis, breviter acuminatis aut subacutis, rachide et lamina subtus secus costam 
costulamque pilis brevioribus molliter obtectis, 
N.Y. Yunnan: Weisih Hsien, Mekong-Salwin Divide, K. M. Feng 4474 in wooded ravine, alt, 2100 m.; 
Kong Shan Hsien, Chonmutung, K. M. Feng 7366, in thickets, alt. 1900-2000 m. 
The plants from Northern India referred to by Clarke and Hope may also belong here rather than 
to L. mollissima of S. India. 
Plate 228. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Portion of pinna, showing venation and sori (X 4). 3. Scale 
from the base of stipe (X 20). 4. Hairs from the stipe (X 40). 5-6, Sporangium with spores (X 100). 
