ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 233 
POLYSTICHUM DIELSII Christ 
ASPIDIACEZ: 
POLYSTICHUM DIELSII Christ in Bull. Acad. Géogr. Bot. Mans 16: 238. 1906; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 
Suppl. I. 64. 1912. 
Hemesteum Dielsii Léveillé Fl. Kouy-tscheou 497. 1915. 
Polystichum hecatopterum C. Chr. in Bull. Acad. Géogr. Bot. Mans. 14: 114. 1904 (non Diels). 
Rhizome short, erect, densely radicose and together with stipes clothed in dense dark brown, lanceo- 
late, acuminate, dentate scales over 5 mm long; fronds caespitose, 6-12 together, stipe 5-7 cm long, rufo- 
stramineous, copiously clothed in the similar but smaller scales than those at the base, lamina 15-25 cm 
long, 2 cm broad, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, hardly narrowed downward, pinnate; pinnae numerous 
(40-60-jugate), pectinately imbricate, recto-patent, about 1 cm long, 5 mm broad, subsessile, subrectangular- 
oblong, base strongly unequal, cut straight below, truncate above with an acute deltoid auricle parallel to 
the rachis, upper margin crenate, but with several sharp, short, spreading teeth towards the rounded apex, 
the lowest 1-2 pairs of pinnae slightly smaller and more or less deflexed; texture herbaceous, dry brownish, 
both sides glabrous except the sparsely scaly rachis; veims forked but the anterior basal one pinnate; sori 
small, mostly confined to the upper half of the pinnae, 5-7 and intramarginal, none or 1-2 on the lower 
side below the apex, indusiate, indusium peltate, gray, fallen off at last. 
Kweichow: Pin-fa, Cavalerie 892 (type), 3712, on limestone cliff ; Houang tsa-pa, Cavalerie 7061, 7647 
(pro parte); Ta-ny, Esquirol 3579; Tungtze, Y. Tsiang 5176 (typical). 
A very distinct local species with a habit more like P. hecatopterum Diels (see Ching, Ic. Fil. Sin. 
1: t. 12. 1930) than any other related species of the group of P. deltodon (Bak.) Diels, but differs 
in the margin of the pinnae having only a few shorter spiny teeth towards the obtuse apex below which 
the upper margin is undulate or crenate and in the less deflexed lower pinnae. From P. deltodon (Bak.) 
Diels (see Ching, l.c. t. 11.), our fern differs in having numerous, pectinately imbricate pinnae with obtuse apex 
provided with a few longer teeth. 
Plale 233. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Pinna, showing venation and sori (X 4). 3. Scale from the 
base of stipe (X 20). 4-5, Sporangium with spores (X 100). 
