POLYPODIUM. 137 



woolly beneath. The abundant sori (spore masses) are scattered and immersed 

 amongst the downy substance. P. porosum is synonymous with this species. 

 — Hooker, Species Filicum, v., p. 48. Beddome, Ferns of Southern India, t. 183. 



P. flabelliforme — fla-bel-lif-or'-me (fan-shaped), Lamarck. 



This stove species, native of Columbia and Peru, is readily distinguished 

 through its flaccid habit, the slender, thread-like nature of its rachis, and the 

 paucity of its spore masses. Its drooping fronds, 4in. to 12in. long, scarcely 

 ^in. broad, borne on tufted, short stalks, fringed with long, soft hairs, are 

 cut down throughout nearly or quite to the midrib into entire or slightly- 

 notched leaflets attached at the base. The texture is soft and papery, and 

 the sori (spore masses) are disposed one to three to' each leaflet. — Hooker, 

 Species Filicum, iv., p. 187. 



P. (Niphobolus) floccigerum. — Mph-oV-ol-us ; floc-cig'-er-um (wool- 

 bearing), Mettenius. 

 This stove species, native of Northern India, the Philippines, and Malaysia, 

 is also known as Atitrophyum niphoboloides ; it resembles N. fissum, but the 

 fronds are narrower and more rigid in texture. Its wide-creeping rhizomes 

 are covered with bright, rust-coloured, spear-shaped scales. The very short- 

 stalked fronds are undivided, 6in. to 12in. long, Jin. to Jin. broad, gradually 

 narrowed to both ends, and rigid in texture ; their upper surface is naked, 

 while the lower one is densely matted with a somewhat rusty-coloured down, 

 in which the sori, covering the upper part of the frond, are immersed.— 

 Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 351. 



P. (Niphobolus) flocCUlOSUm— Niph-ob'-ol-us ; floc-cul-o'-sum (furnished 

 with little tufts of a woolly substance), Don. 

 According to Hooker, this very distinct, greenhouse species, of medium 

 dimensions, is a native of Northern India, where it ascends to 5000ft. elevation. 

 Beddome, in his exhaustive work, "Ferns of British India," states that it is 

 found " chiefly in North Bengal and along the lower ranges of the Himalayas, 

 from very low altitudes of Sylhet and Assam to 3500ft. in Kumaon, from 

 Simla in the west to Bhotan in the east." Its entire (undivided) fronds, 

 produced from a short rhizome clothed with scales of a light brown colour. 



