ICONES. FILICUM. SINICARUM 
PLATE 249 
CYRTOMIDICTYUM LEPIDOCAULON (Hooker) Ching 
-ASPIDIACEZE 
CYRTOMIDICTYUM LEPIDOCAULON (Hooker) Ching in Bull. Fan. Mem. Inst. Biol. Bot. 
Ser. 10: 162. 1940; in Acta Phytotax. Sinica 6: 264 t. 53. 1957. 
Aspidium lepidocaulon Hooker, Sp. Fil. 4: 12 t. 217. 1862; Hook. & Bak. Syn. Fil. 250. 1874; Fr. et Sav. 
Enum. Pl. Jap. 2: 230. 1876; Palibin in Acta Hort. Bot. Petrop. 11: 41. 1901. 
Polystichum lepidocaulon J. Sm. Ferns Brit. & Fore. 286. 1866; Diels in Engl. u. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 
1: iv. 189. 1899; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 582. 1905; Ching in Sinensia 3: 331. 1933; Ogata, Ic. Fil. Jap. 5: 
t. 246. 1933; DeVol, Ferns East. China 78. 1945 (pro parte). 
Dryopteris lepidocaula O. Ktze. Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 812. 1891. 
Rhizome short, ascending, densely radicose; fronds tufted, spreading and nodding, stipe of the fertile 
frond 15-30 cm long, about 2.5 mm across above the base, copiously clothed in large, brown, ovate, clasping 
or subimbricating, ciliate scales with cordate base, lamina as long as the stipe, 8-15 cm broad, elongate-oblong 
to broadly oblong-lanceolate, apex acuminate and pinnatifid, base not narrowed, simply pinnate; pinnae 
8-15 pairs, shortly petiolate, patent, alternate, separated by sinuses nearly as broad, the basal pair as long as 
those next above, or rarely somewhat longer, usually 5.5-10 cm long, 1.2-1.8 cm broad, lanceolate-falcate, 
gradually acuminate, entire throughout or nearly so, base unequal, round-cuneate below, truncate and with 
a triangular acute auricle above; texture thickly chartaceous or subcoriaceous, dry brownish, rachis similarly 
scaly as the stipe, glabrous above and quite copiously clothed below in scattered, appressed, thin and fim- 
briate scales, costa of pinnae slender, grooved above, and raised beneath; veins obscure, veinlets in pinnate 
group, of which the anterior basal one stops short about half way to the margin, occasionally the lower 
ones of the same group, or of the opposite groups joint, otherwise all free; sori small, dorsal on the lower 
2-3 veinlets of each group, biseriate on each side of the costa, 3-seriate on the auricle. The sterile frond with 
much more slender and longer scaly stipe, lamina narrower than the fertile, usually consisting of less num- 
ber of smaller pinnae, which are far apart from each other, the rachis. is prolongated into a long whip-like 
scaly stolon, ended in a scaly bud as a means of vegetative reproduction. 
At present this species has been reported from East China, including Fukien, Kiangsi, Hunan, the 
southern part of Anwhei and Kiangsu on the border of Chekiang. Also known from Japan and Korea: 
Tsu-Shima, Wilford 565 (type), May, 1857. 
Like the other species of the genus, the present fern also prefers to grow in wooded ravines by stream 
side at low elevations and often forms a dense patch, throwing out long wiry stolons in all directions. 
Plate 249. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Portion of soriferous pinna, showing venation and position of 
sori (X 3). 3. Scale from the basal part of stipe (X 20). 4. Scale from the under side of pinna (X 20). 
5-6. Sporangium with spores (X 100). 
