CHAPTER XVII 

 WALKING LEAF 



Camptosorus rhizophyllus. 



Rootstock ascending, short, slender, somewhat chaffy: scales 

 minute, strongly reticulate in reddish-brown, lanceolate or nar- 

 rowly lanceolate-deltoid or, apparently abnormally, ovate, acu- 

 minate, entire or with a few short cilia: leaves fascicled at apex 

 of rootstock: roots springing from outer sides of junctures of 

 petioles and rootstock, one to each petiole. 



Leaves two to fifteen inches long, decumbent or ascending, 

 imperfectly evergreen. 



Petioles four-fifths of an inch to six inches long, slender, flaccid ; 

 below chestnut-brown about one-eighth to one-third of length; 

 above green ; laterally narrowly winged for more or less of length 

 from apex downward ; at base bearing a few scales similar to scales 

 of rootstock, sometimes an occasional narrow scale above: fibro- 

 vascular bundles two in lower part of petioles, roundish, uniting 

 above into one roundish-deltoid in section. 



Blades lanceolate with flagelliform apex proliferous at tip, 

 or lanceolate or ligulate with obtuse or acute non-proliferous 

 apex; at base auricled, cordate, hastate, or, rarely, acute; auri- 

 cles sometimes prolonged laterally and obtuse to flagelliform, 

 occasionally proliferous at tip of prolongation : margins entire or 



