16 



POLYPODIACEAE 



short rootstock to which the short petioles are jointed: 

 blades narrow, elongate, entire or at least undivided, 

 usually glossy. Lateral veins extending from the mid- 

 rib to the leaf-margin, connected by curved parallel 

 transverse veinlets which form more or less regular 

 areolae, these containing usually 2 free veinlets. Sori 

 orbicular, borne in 1 row or in several rows on the 

 back of the leaf -blade on either side of the midrid on 

 the free veinlets. Indusia wanting. About fifty species, 

 mostly confined to the tropics. 



1. C. Phyllitidis (L.) Presl. Rootstock stout; leaves 

 several together, erect or arching, 2.5-16 dm. long; 

 blades elongate, linear 

 and tapering to each 

 end, shining, somewhat 

 leathery, slightly paler 

 beneath than above, en- 

 tire or undulate, short- 

 petioled : veins rather 



Erominent, the areolae 

 irge: sori usually in a 

 double row between the 

 lateral veins. (STRAP- 

 FERN.) Hammocks. 

 Figure 8, reduced. 



The strap-fern grows 

 nearly throughout the 

 forest on Royal Palm 

 Hammock, but it is more 

 common on the higher 

 parts of the island. It 

 occurs also in all the 

 hammocks of the Ever- 

 glade Keys. In the high 

 pineland hammocks it is 

 exceedingly abundant, 

 growing in the humus on 



