32 ASPIDIUM, § POLYSTICHUM. 



37. A. (Polystichuni) adscendens, \iew.\ caudex very long 

 (" 20-30 feet ") scandent as thick as one's finger branched 

 clothed with copious linear-subulate ferruginous fringed palea- 

 ceous scales, of two kinds from the same caudex, fronds 1-3-4 

 feet long by 2 feet wide in the broadest specimens thin-coria- 

 ceous (on stipites 1-2 feet long brown furrowed on one side 

 scaly only at the base 3-4-pinnate) ; sterile ones, pinnee all pe- 

 tiolate, primary ones ovato-lanceolate, secondary ones oblong- 

 lanceolate acuminate, pinnules lanceolate very acute obliquely 

 cuneate at the base inferior ones pinnatifid or rarely again 

 pinnulate with short acute lobes their apices serrated penni- 

 veined, veins prominent beneath ; /erifi/e fronds with pinnules 

 all much contracted linear deeply pinnatifid with rounded 

 lobes each bearing a sorus as large as itself and covered by 

 an orbicular-cordate peltate involucre, rachises all glabrous. 

 (Tab. CCXXYV .)— Reward, in Mug. Nat. Hist. N. S. 1838, 

 pp. 13, 454. 



Hab. Jamaica, mountain forests abont " Old Englisb plantation ;" Manchester, 

 climbing 20-30 feet up the trunks of trees, li. Ileward. It is also sent from 

 Manchester by Purdie, from Woodside, St. Mary's, by Wilson, and from Moneague 

 by Dr. Alexander Prior. — This, which may be reckoned among the rarest, and 

 at the same time the most distinct of known Ferns, was discovered by our friend 

 Mr. Howard, and though accurately described by him in the Nat. Hist. Journal 

 above mentioned, it has never been taken up by Fee or Mettenius. Its affinity 

 is clearly with Aspid. coriaceum, from which however it is abundantly distinct, 

 as will be at once seen by our specific character and figure. It is remarkable that 

 though " common in the mountain forests, and the caudex climbing upon and 

 over trees " to the extent it does, Mr. Ileward only twice met with the sterile 

 fronds. Most of our fronds, whether they are sterile or fertile, are very much 

 larger than what came under his observation. Some of these sterile fronds are 

 partially fertile, that is, their pinnules are changed into fertile ones. From the 

 shape of the involucres this might almost claim to be a Lastrea, but the habit is 

 that of a Polystkhum. 



38. A. (Polystichum) coriaceum,, Sw. ; caudex very long 

 creeping branched as thick as one's finger densely clothed 

 with large tawny silky subulate scales, stipites solitary dis- 

 tant 1-2 feet long stout and as well as the main rachises de- 

 ciduously paleaceous, fronds generally very large from 6 

 inches to 2-3 feet long deltoideo-ovate acuminate very coria- 

 ceous rigid 3-pinnate, pinnro all erecto-patent petiolate lower 

 ones unequally deltoid acuminate, lowest inferior secondary 

 pinnse longer than the superior ones, pinnules an inch or 

 more long ovate or lanceolate entire or more or less obtusely 

 serrate or pinnatifid, segments oblong acute (but not mucro- 

 nate) entire or bluntly serrated, ultimate ones of the primary 



