ICONES -FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 244 
POLYSTICHUM XIPHOPHYLLUM (Baker) Diels 
ASPIDIACE 
POLYSTICHUM XIPHOPHYLLUM (Baker) Diels in Engl. u. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1: iv. 
189. 1899; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 589. 1905. 
Aspidium xiphophyllum Baker in Journ. Bot. 1888: 227. 
Polystichum praelongatum Christ in Bull. Acad. Géogr. Bot. Mans 12: 260. 1902; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 586. 1905. 
Rhizome short, thick, erect, imbricately covered with the persistent bases of old stipes; fronds fascicled, 
several together, stipe 20-30 cm long, dark stramineous, densely clothed in dark brown, firm, broadly 
lanceolate scales intermixed with blackish linear-subulate ones with scarious margin and, upon falling, 
leaving the stipe roughened by the persistent minute warty bases, lamina 30 cm or longer, 10-15 cm broad, 
oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, not narrowed towards the base, pinnate; pinnae about 20 pairs, short-petiolate, 
spread, alternate, separated below by sinuses of the same width as the pinnae, 7.5-10 cm long, 1 cm broad, 
subfalcate-lanceolate, acuminate, base unequal, obliquely cut away below, with a free, or adnate ovate acute 
auricle on the upper side, margin varies from regularly serrate, or lobulato-crenate with stout cuspidate teeth 
even to pinnate; texture coriaceous, rather lustrous, rachis densely clothed in black subulate scales, both sides 
glabrous, dry brownish; veins immersed, indistinct, pinnate; sori uniseriate, midway between the costa and 
margin, often irregularly biseriate, indusium large, firm, gray, deciduous. 
Szechuan: Mt. Omei, Faber 1040 (type); Brown137; S. C. Chen 30044, 10068, alt. 1300, August 28, 
1953; R. C. Ching 174; T. C. Peng 27; Z. C. Chen 322; Nanchuan, W. P. Feng 5725. Kweichow: Pin- 
fa, Cavalerie 328; Kwei-yang, Cavalerie 2641. Yunnan: Hong-pa, Ducloux 5091. 
An endemic species in West China. In general habit and degree of pinnation of leaves, it most closely 
resembles the large form of P. otophorum (Franch.) Bedd., from which, however, it can be easily dis- 
tinguished, besides the generally larger size, by the pinnae being more widely separated by sinuses, the 
gradually acuminate apex and, above all, by the shortly cuspidate teeth along the margin. P. otophorum 
Franch. has, as a rule, fronds of much smaller size, shorter and contiguous pinnae with short-acuminate 
apex and, above all, longer spiny teeth along the margin. As to the degree of pinnation of leaves, the two 
species vary in almost the same manner. 
From ample material on hand, four closely related forms have been observed: 1, forma integra, having 
entire pinnae with regularly and finely cuspidate-serrate margin; 2, forma typica, having pinnae with a free 
ovate acute auricle at the anterior base;3, forma bipinnatifida, having, besides a free anterior pinnule, the 
pinnae deeply pinnatifid, as represented by Polystichum praclongatum Christ, based on Cavalerie No. 2641 
from Kweichow and, lastly, forma bipinnata, a fully bipinnate form of larger size with many free pinnules, 
of which the anterior basal one much the largest, to 1.3 cm long, erect and appressed against the rachis and 
its anterior base may have an additional adnate lobule. 
Plate 244. 1. Habit sketch of f. typica (natural size)s--25' Pinna off. ¢ypica. CX: 2)... -3: Seale fromathe 
base of stipe (X 20). 4-5. Sporangium with spores (X 100). 6. Pinna of f. integra (natural size). 7. Pinna 
of f. bipinnata (natural size). 
