POLYPODIUM, § NIPflOUOLUS. 43 



more which are soriferous, sori always terminal small forming 

 two series between the costular veins. — Raddi, Fil. Bras. p. 

 23. /. :3.5. Metten. Fil. Hook. Lips. p. M, Polyp, p. 34. Cam- 

 pyloneuron, P/-. Cyrtoplilel)ium, J. S^m. — ^, Fend/eri ; large 

 brighter-green, piniuc 1 foot long,costoc and veins stramineous. 

 P. Fendleri, Eat. PL JVr'tylit. et Fend/, p. 199, and P. tlecurrens, 

 J). 199 {not Campyloneuruni Fendleri of Moore). Campylo- 

 neuron magnificum, Moore, hid. Fil. p. 224, in note. 



Hal). Brazil, Raddi, Donglas, n. 7, Milne, Gardner, n. 1004, 5292, 5665.-/3. 

 \tntzue\a, Fendl. n. 231 and n. 410. Tarapota, Eastern Peru, Spruce. — The 

 Venezuela plants of Feiidler are one and same variety ; both much larger than 

 ordinary : frond of a lively-green colour. 



§ 9. NiPHOBOLDS. — Venation internal, indistinct, and when seen very variable 

 in different species, so much so, that those who retain Niphobolus* as a genus 

 are otMiged to have recourse to the artificial character of the under side of the 

 fronds being clothed with more or less dense stellated hairs or tomentum. 

 Fronds always simple, sttbdimorphous, arising from a long creeping caudex. 

 Gen. Niphobolus, Klfs. Hook. Gen. Fil. t. 83. Niphopsis, /. Sm. Sp. 298-320. 



298. P. (Niphobolus) angustatum, Sw. ; caudex long creep- 

 ing branched paleaceous with falcate subulato-setaceous scales, 

 stipites remote li-4 inches long, fronds 5 inches to a span 

 or more long |-2 inches wide tapering below into a petiole 

 glabrous above hoary and subferruginous with dense stellated 

 pubescence coriaceo-carnose ; sterile fronds usually the small- 

 est and broadest and with shorter petioles broad or oblongo- 

 lanceolate ; fertile ones longer and generally narrower in 

 proportion, venation sunk obscure, costular areoles with free 

 or branched and more or less connected veinlets, sori very 

 large subglobose oval partially sunk in the frond very convex 

 forming a single series on each side between the costa and 

 margin sometimes longitudinally confluent. — Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 



* Niphobolus was established as a genus by Kaulfnss, " Sori nudi, annulares 

 vel rosacei, conferti vel sparsi ad ajiicem frondis, pills stellatis obducti," — and 

 although his successors have almost invariably retained the genus, they have done 

 little, if anything, towards giving more stable characters. Genus heteroclitvm, 

 writes M. Fee, " pilis Neuroplatyceratis {Platycerii, auct.) ; venulis Pleopeltidis 

 et Gymnopteridis, sporotheciis uniserialibus ut in Polypodiis, Pleopeltidibus, 

 etc., multiserialibus ut in Pleuridiis, indistinctis et confluentihus ut in Acro- 

 sticheis, etc. Presl alone, among the advocates for the great imimrtauce of vena- 

 tion, has been steady to that principle, and has formed eight genera out of A7- 

 phobolus ! an arrangement in which he has been followed by no one ; neither by 

 those, as observed by Moore, ' who reject as worthless all distinctions, the most 

 marked and obvious ditferences of vascular structure,' nor by those who in general 

 patronize the multiplication of genera on slight grounds." Moore gives in Ind. 

 Fil. representations of two (out of many quite different forms of venation) for 

 Niphobolus, but acknowledges that, bereft of its hairs, it would simply be a net- 

 veined Folypodium. 



