244 ACROSTICHUM, § POLYBOTRYA. 



sterile fronds with close comj^act pinnae 1-2 inches long 

 less than \ an inch wide from a broad always sessile base 

 oblong-acuminate subdentate, lowest ones very small close- 

 placed orbicular; fertile fronds rather smaller, the pinnules 

 1-1^ inch long linear petiolate truncate or subhastate at the 

 base. 



Hab. West tropical Africa : Cameroon Mountains, alt. 4000 feet, G. Mann. — 

 This is, at first sight, more unlike the ordinary form of A.sorbifolium than any of 

 its varieties; yet I will not venture to pronounce upon this as decidedly A\i,in\ci. 

 The pinnae are very numerous, close-placed in the sterile frond, more distant (on 

 account of their nariowness) in the fertile frond, and in the latter truncate or 

 even subhastate at the petiolated base. 



§ 3. PoLYBOTRYA. — Fronds dimorphous, generally ample and very compound. 

 The fertile pinnules much contracted and sometimes soriferous on both sur- 

 faces. Veins simple or forked. — Gen. Polybotrya, H. B. K. 



98. A. (Polybotrya) caudatum, Hook, (not Acr. caud.. 

 Hook. Ic. PL t. 215); caudex stout scandent ' 15-20 feet 

 long often 1 inch broad, stipites elongated as thick as the 

 finger at the base and there paleaceous with subulate brown 

 falcate scales an inch long, fronds from near the sum- 

 mit of the caudex ample subcoriaceous several feet long; 

 sterile ones tripinnate, primary pinnae 1^ foot long distant 

 long-petioled often 1 foot broad, secondary ones 4-6 inches 

 long petiolulate deeply pinnatifid or pinnate with ovate or 

 falcate entire or serrated lobes, ultimate pinnules \\-2 inches 

 long ; fertile fronds ample bipinnate, pinnules petiolate 2-4 

 or more inches long \\ line wide linear more or less irregu- 

 larly pinnatifid- with short oblong segments, terminal portion 

 caudate all over soriferous or with a ridge on the back whicli 

 is sometimes sterile. — Polybotrya, Kze. in Linnaa, ix. p. 23. 

 Fee, Acrost. p. 72. t. 34 [very good). Psomiocarpa, Pr. — 

 Var. /3 ; rachis, costae, and veins ferruginously stellato-pu- 

 bescent and villous. P. pubens, Mart. Fil. Bras. p. 87- 1. 25. 

 Kze. in Linncea, ix. p. 23. 



Hab. Peru, PKpjng, Spruce, n. 4634, 3880. Ecuador, Tumaco, Hindes, See- 

 mann. New Granada, Arima, Purdie, n. 12. Panama, Sutton Hayes. — Var. /3. 

 Peru, Poeppig, in Herb, nostr. Amazon, Martius. Guiana, Schomburgk, Le 

 Prieur. Brazil, Spruce, n. 2116. — The ample panicle of very long caudate pin- 

 nules are mainly characteristic of this species. The P. pubens of Kunze and 

 Martius appears to me to be a hairy var. of the same; the fertile frond is iden- 

 tical. In both the disk of the upper side is more or less free of capsules. 



99. A. (Polybotrya) nutans, Hook. ; " caudex very long 

 scandent and radicant, stipes moderately large paleaceous, 

 frond triangular- oblong subglabrous ; s/m/e frond bipinnate. 



