ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM . 
PLATE 245 
POLYSTICHUM TRIPTERON (Kunze) Presl 
ASPIDIACE 
POLYSTICHUM TRIPTERON (Kunze) Presl, Epim. Bot. 58. 1849; Diels in Engl. u. Prantl, Nat. 
Pflanzenfam. 1: iv. 191. 1899; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 589; Hand.-Mzt. Symb. Sin. 6: 27. 1929; Ogata, Ic. 
Fil. Jap. 7: t. 342. 1936. 
Aspidium tripteron Kunze in Bot. Zeit. 1848: 569; Mett. Farngatt. Pheg. u. Asp. n. 118. 1858; Hook., 2nd. 
Cent. Ferns t. 56. 1861; Hook. & Bak. Syn. Fil. 254. 1874; Christ, Farnkr. d. Erde 237. 1897. 
Dryopteris triptera O. Ktze. Rev. Gen. Fil. 2: 814. 1891. 
Pulopteris triptera Hayata in Bot. Mag. Tokio 41: 706. 1927. 
Aspidium tripteris Eaton in Perry, Narr. Exp. to China 2: 330. 1856. 
Rhizome short, erect, usually thick and covered with bases of old stipes; fronds caespitose, stipe 12-25 
cm long, stramineous, rather soft, densely near the base and sparsely upward clothed in dark brown 
broadly lanceolate scales, lamina 22-35 cm long, 5-7 cm broad above the base, simply pinnate with the 
basal pair of pinnae always greatly lengthened out to 10 cm or more long and again similarly pinnate 
as the upper part; pinnae in the central main branch 20-40 pairs, patent, 25-35 cm long, 9-12 mm broad, 
regularly spaced, lanceolate and acuminate from the broader unequal base, which is cut straight or oblique 
below, truncate and auricled above, the auricle ovate, acute, serrate, the upper margin lobato-incised or coarsely 
serrate, while the lower margin with a few large linear, decumbent teeth; the dasal pair of pinnae consists 
of 6-10 pairs of smaller pinnules of the same shape as the pinnae in the central part, 6-20 mm long, less than 
I cm broad, margin similarly serrate; texture herbaceous, dry light green, rachis and under side moderately 
clothed in light brown, ovate, thin scales; veins pinnate in the anterior side of the base, forked upward 
and below the costa, distinct; sori small, terminal on the anterior basal veinlet of each group, uniseriate 
between the costa and margin, indusium large, membranaceous, crenate and persistent. 
A common fern in China, numerous specimens have been seen from Manchuria, Hopei, Shantung, 
Honan, Hunan, Szechuan, Kweichow, Kwangsi, Kwangtung, Kiangsi, Chekiang, Northern Kiangsu and 
Southern Anhwei Provinces. 
Also known from Japan and Korea. 
This is a peculiarly distinct species because of the lengthening out of the basal pair of pinnate pinnae, 
and, in the degree of pinnation, it stands exactly midway between the groups of simply pinnate P. deltodon 
(Bak.) Diels and of bipinnate P. setiferum (Forsk.) Woyar. 
A closely related species, or perhaps be better considered as a geographic race is Polystichum Hancockii 
(Hance) Diels from Taiwan and also Kwangtung, which is characterized by much slender habit with 
smaller pinnae, of which the basal pair is very short with only a few pairs of small pinnules. From Tai- 
wan, forms with basal pair of pinnae remains practically the same as the upper ones, or only slightly 
lengthened out have also been observed and given different names by Hayata. 
Plate 246. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Pinna, showing venation and sori (X 2). 3. Scale from the 
base of stipe (X 20). 4. Indusium CX 20). 5-6. Sporangium with spores (X 100). 
