Gramiiutw.] CLVI. FILICES. 1991 



scattered. — Bail. Litho. Ferns Ql. 174; Gymnogramme pinnata, Hook. Spec. Filic. 

 V. 151, Syn. Filic. 390 ; Hemionitis elongata, Brackenr. Filic. U.S. Expl. Exped. 

 t. 8; Dictyogramme pinnata, T. Moore; Bail. Queensl. Ferns, 33. 



Hab.: Common in the northern scrubs. 



Also in the Malayan Archipelago and South Pacific Islands. 



5. G. ampla (ample), F. v. M. Fragm. v. 188 ; Benth. Fl. Amtr. vii. 777. 

 Ehizome rather thick, scaly, creeping. Fronds 1 to 2ft. high, deeply pinnatifid, 

 glabrous. Segments 3 to 11, lanceolate, 3 to 6in. long, f to IJin. broad when 

 fertile, often 2in. when barren, acuminate, membranous, entire, decurrent and 

 connected by a broad wing to the rhachis, the wing gradually tapering below the 

 lowest pair but continued almost to the base of the stipes. Veins proceeding from 

 the midrib immediately forked, one branch bearing a straight linear sorus extend- 

 ing usually to the margin, the other prominent flexuose with anastomosing 

 branches, and from both are emitted a few short free branches. — Bail. Litho. 

 Ferns Ql. 176. 



Hab.: In all the dense tropical scrubs. 



6. G. membranacea (membranous), Rlume, Fil. Jav. 123, *. 52, /. 2. 

 Rhizome slender, creeping, climbing up the stems of trees by the aid of 

 adventitious roots emitted from the under side, the upper surface densely 

 paleaceous, with rather long, dark-brown, narrow scales. Fronds membranous, 

 somewhat distantly placed on the rhizome, simple or variously lobed, and either 

 form soriferous, glabrous, 6 to 12in. long, tapering to a rather long stipes and 

 elongated apex, the undivided fronds attaining a width of 2in. in the widest 

 part, lobes on the divided ones from 1 to 12, spreading, tapering towards the 

 point, but cut down so as to leave but a wing on the costa in the sinus about i 

 or ^in. wide, the segments varying from 1 to 4in. long ; venation rather open 

 forming large hexagonal areoles containing forked free veinlets; sori in short 

 lines or oblong masses, often not exceeding 2 or 3 lines on the divided fronds, 

 and distant from the eostule, but on the entire simple fronds often reaching from 



near the costa to near the margin, but these lines are frequently interrupted 



Bail. Litho. Ferns Ql. 175. 



Hab.: BeUenden-Ker, at an elevation of 4,000ft. 



■ The habit of this fern and its variously formed fronds reminds one of Polypodium scandens, 

 Forst., and further, when dry, it possesses the same fragrance as that and some allied , Polypo- 

 diums. To pteridologists, the meeting of this species, bearing its various forms of foliage, is 

 most interesting, and it saves the mistakes being made of multiplying species, and completes 

 the description of an old species. G. Sayeri, F. v. M. and Baker, has been named from fronds 

 of this species ; and in all probability G. Wrightii, Hook., is but another form. I might here 

 remark that probably Mr. Baker was not far wrong when he placed the Queensland fern, G. 

 ampla, P. v. M., under G. elliptica, for it varies greatly in the form of the fronds. In cultivation 

 the fronds are much smaller and often entire, and these as frequently bear sori as the more 

 developed deeply lobed ones. On starved plants, indeed, of G. ampla, the almost only distinctive 

 mark to separate it from Q. membrunacea is its broad flattish rhizome and a slight difference, 

 perhaps, in the venation. 



83. MENISCIUM, Schreb. 



(Referring to the sorus being in the form of a crescent or meniskos.) 



Sori oblong or linear or sometimes orbicular and geminate, arising from the 

 transverse connivent veinlets. No indusium. Veins or costules pinnated from 

 the costa ; veinlets numerous, the opposite ones uniting in an arc or angle, and 

 sending out from that angle a free or continuous veinlet. Fronds simple or 

 pinnatifid. — Hooker's Species Filicum, v., 162. 



1. n/I. triphyllum (leaves of 3-Ieaflets), Sw. ; Hooker's Spec. Filic. v. 163. 

 Rhizome long, creeping, subulfl to-paleaceous ; stipites pale-brown, glabrous, 4 to 

 5 inches long. of the sterile, 1 foot or more long of the fertile ones ; fronds 



