ACHROSTICHE^ ELAPHOGLOSSUM. 1 37 



(2) E. decurrens (Desv.). Rhizome woody, the palese large, ovate, 

 dull brown; stipe 6 to 10 cm. high, firm, erect, scaly; frond 10 to 15 cm. 

 high, 5 cm. broad, round at the apex, narrowed gradually to the stipe, 

 very thick, surface glabrous, but the margin densely fringed with ovate, 

 yellowish, toothed, deciduous scales 1 mm. long; veins immersed, nearly 

 hidden. 



Luzon, Cuming 144. 



(3) E. Cumingii (Fee). Rhizome woody, clothed with large, ovate, 

 dull brown scales; stipe 15 to 20 cm. high, firm, erect, scaly below; sterile 

 frond 20 cm. high, 3 cm. broad, obtuse, narrowed gradually below, margin 

 densely fringed by mostly slightly intramarginal minute scales; frond very 

 thick, surfaces, especially the upper, clothed with minute, scattered scales; 

 veins quite hidden; fertile frond as long as the sterile but rather narrower. 



Luzon, Cuming 193; Arayat, Loher. 



(60) ACHROSTICHUM Linnaeus. 



Rhizome thick, erect, stipes not articulate to it; frond large, simply 

 pinnate; pinnae with prominent costa, and veinlets copiously anastomosing, 

 without free included veinlets; sporangia covering the backs of the fertile 

 pinnae, except for the costa and sometimes for a narrow marginal line. 

 Large terrestrial ferns, in brackish marshes throughout the Islands. The 

 genus Achrostichum formerly included all ferns with the sporangia covering 

 the fruiting surface, without evident differentiation of sori; which was 

 probably more convenient than the present, presumably more natural, 

 arrangement. 



(1) A. aureum L. Rhizome woody, somewhat scaly; stipe 30 to 60 

 cm. high, stout, erect, polished; frond 60 to 200 cm. high, 30 to 60 cm. 

 broad; pinnae numerous, 15 to 30 cm. long, about 5 cm. broad, stalked, 

 obtuse or sometimes retuse and bluntly mucronate, entire, glabrous, 

 leathery; areolae small, evident; upper pinnae fertile, hardly as large as 

 the sterile. 



Manila, Loher, Marave, Merrill 57, Elmer 5510; Camarines, Bataan, and 

 Masbate, Baranda; Iloilo, Copcland, including a freak with forked pinnae; 

 Davao, Warburg; Balabac, Steere. 



Pantropic. 



(61) CHEIROPLEURIA Presl. 



Rhizome creeping, stipes not articulate to it; fronds dimorphous, the 

 sterile dichotomously veined and lobed, fertile linear, costate; sori covering 

 the lower surface, excepting costa and margin. A- fern remarkably distinct 

 in appearance, epiphytic or terrestrial in the mossy forest. 



(1) C. bicuspis Presl. Rhizome short, stout, densely clothed with 

 golden, jointed, hairs; stipes 20 to 40 cm. high, angular, stramineous, 

 naked except at the base; sterile frond about 10 cm. long, ovate or, if 

 the tips spread, as broad as long, normally lobed half way to the base 

 by a broad sinus into two erect or spreading acute lobes, entire, subcuneate 

 at base, glabrous, thin-coriaceous; main veins dichotomous; veinlets anas- 



