Grammiiu.'] pilices. 457 



A. considerable genus, chiefly tropical, common to the New and the Old World, differing 

 from Asplenium in the absence of any indusium, and from the closely allied Oymnogramme, 

 chiefly in habit, and in the son always simple and straight, not forked. 



1. G. decurrens, JFalL; Hook, and Grev. Ic. Ml. t. 6. Ehizome 

 rather thick, creeping, with black or brown scales. Eronds erect, 1 to 2 ft. 

 high, quite glabrous, deeply pinnatifid or pinnate. Segments 3 to 17, lan- 

 ceolate, 3 to 5 in. long, acuminate, narrowed at the base, rather distant, but 

 usually connected by a decurrent wing, or the lower ones quite free, all rather 

 thick. Veins proceeding from the midrib and immediately forked, in the fer- 

 tile segments one branch bears a straight linear sorus, the other, like both 

 branches in the ban-en segments, is flexuose and anastomosing, and from both 

 are emitted a few short free branches. — Selliguea decurrem, Presl ; Hook, in 

 Kew Joum. Bot. ix. 358. 



In ravines, Champion and others. In the Indian PeninstQa, the Himalaya, Khasia, the 

 rtulippiues, Loochoo, and Corea. 



18. MENISCIUM, Schreb. 



Sori oblong, transverse, (parallel to the midrib) and arranged in parallel 

 rows between the primary pinnate veins. Indusium none. 



A small tfopical genus, common to the New and the Old World, only differing fi'om 

 Polypodium in the shape of the sori. 



1. M. simplex, Hook, in Lond. Joum. Bot. i. 294, t. 11, and Fil. Exot. 

 t. 83. Ehizome creeping. Frond simple or 8-lobed at the base, lanceolate, 

 acuminate, 3 to 8 in. long on a stipes of 3 to 6 in., cordate at the base, | to 25 

 in. broad, pubescent. Veins numerous and parallel, diverging from the 

 midrib, and connected by numerous transverse veinlets which, in the fertile 

 fronds, bear the sori. 



Common on hillsides, Hinds, Champion and others. Also in Chusan. 



19. POLYPODITTM, Linn. 



Sori circular or rarely somewhat oval, variously arranged on the under sur- 

 face of the frond. Indusium none. Eeceptacle not raised. — Herbaceous 

 Ferns. Fronds simple or once, twice, or thrice pinnate. 



A large genus, as widely dispersed over the surface of the globe as Asplenium and 



Fronds aE simple, thick, the veins inconspicuous or the primary ones 



scarcely prominent. ■, ti tit- r^- 

 Sori in a single row on each side of the midrib l.F.WigUmnum 



Sori scattered in several rows _■ • • ;-,-^' 



Sori very closely packed in numerous series occupying the whole 



breadth of the fertile fronds. „ „ . 



Fertile fronds Knear, always barren at the base 3. P. adnascem. 



Fertilefrondsobloug-lanoeolateorlinear-lanceolate,mostlycovered 



with sori from the base i. P. Lingua. 



Fronds 3-lobed, or sometimes simple, thin, with prominent veins . . 5. P. tndactylon. 

 Fronds simply pinnate. Veins parallel, prominent. Son on transverse 



veinlets between them. &. p. gramlomm. 



Pinnse few, distinct ■ ■ • • ; 'j j-, * j ™j 



Pinnse numerous, confluent, the sessile base of the frond dilated and 



shortly lobed 8. P. tenericaule. 



Fronds thrice pinnate 



