ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 243 
POLYSTICHUM NEPALENSE (Sprengel) C. Christensen 
ASPIDIACE 
POLYSTICHUM NEPALENSE (Sprengel) C. Christensen, Ind. Fil. 84. 1905. 585. 1906; in Contr. 
U.S. Nat. Herb. 26: 284. 1931. 
Aspidium nepalense Sprengel Syst. Veget. 4: 97. 1827. 
Aspidium marginatum Wall. List n. 366. 1828 (nom. nud:); Mett. Farngatt. Pheg. u. Asp. 39, n. 88. 1858; 
Hope in Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc. 14: 459 t. 17. 1902. 
Polystichum marginatum Schott, Gen. Fil. ad t. 9. 1834. 
Aspidium. auriculatum Presl var. marginatum Hook. et Bak. Syn. Fil. 251. 1876. 
Polystichum auriculatum var. marginatum Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. Suppl. t. 363. 1876; Handb. Ferns Brit. Ind. 
204. 1883. 
Aspidium auriculatum Don, Prodr. Fl. Nep. 3.1825 (non Sw.). 
Aspidium manmeiense Christ in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 6: 765. 1898. 
Polystichum atroviridissimum Hayata, Ic. Pl. Form. 4: 190, f. 128. 1914. 
Polystichum falcatipinnum Hayata, Ic. Pl. Form. 4: 192 f. 130. 1914. 
Rhizome short, thick, erect, densely radicose; fronds caespitose, many together, stipe 12-15.cm_ long, 
rufo-stramineous, or dead-stramineous near the base, densely clothed especially near the base in large, dark 
brown or blackish, shining broadly ovate-acuminate, thick scales often with lighter-colored margin, inter- 
mixed with rufo-brown linear-subulate scales; lamina 25-30 cm long, 5-6 cm broad, broadly lanceolate, acu- 
minate, slightly narrowed towards the base, pinnate; pinnae about 25 pairs, close, patent, short-petiolate, 
25-3.cm long, 8 mm broad near the base, subfalcate, short-acuminate or acute, base cuneate below, the 
upper with a distinct broad acute auricle, margin double-serrate with dense, white-callose, acute teeth which 
are not pungent to feeling, the basal pinnae smaller, less than 2 cm long, acute, not deflexed but horizon- 
tally patent; ¢exture coriaceous, dry brown, rachis rather sparsely clothed in rufo-brown, large, ovate scales 
mixed with some brown linear ones, glabrous above, the under side copiously dotted on the veins with 
minute brown appressed scales with nearly orbicular base and long-cuspidate apex; veins in pinnate groups, 
_ slowly branching out from the costa under a sharp angle, distinctly raised above, visible and often impressed 
below; sori large in two costal rows and often an additional short row in the auricle (but in the bipinnatifid 
form, the sori often irregularly two-rowed on each side of costa), dorsal on the anterior veinlet of each 
group, indusium large, membranaceous, dark gray, margin crenate, quite persistent, 
In China numerous specimens have been seen from Yunnan, S.W. Szechuan (Mt. Omei), Tibet 
(Yatung) and the Island Taiwan (Mt. Arisan) at elevations from 1500-3000 m. Also Northern India and 
the Philippines (Mt. Pulog, alt. 2750 m.). 
A close relative of the Eurasian-American Polystichum lonchitis (L.) Roth and was considered as 
identical to each other by earlier botanists, 
The degree of pinnation in a number of simply pinnate species of Polystichum of the group of 
Lobatum often varies considerably, as is examplified by the present and the following species, with which 
the present fern looks quite alike but differs in the large, broadly ovate dark brown shining scales on stipe 
mixed with brown fibrils and linear-subulate ones, in the biserrate, dense and white-callose teeth along. 
the margin of the pinnae, the under side of which is copiously dotted with appressed orbicular-cuspidate 
minute scales and in the large costal sori with large brown membranaceous indusium. 
Plate 243. 1. Habit sketch (natural). 2. Pinna, showing venation and sori (X 3). 3. Scale from the base of' 
stipe (X 20). 4-5. Sporangium with spores (X 100). 6. Pinna of f. subbipinnata (C. Chr.) Ching (X 3). 
