78 Ebony Spleenwort 



obtuse apex: pinnae alternate or rarely two opposite, crowded 

 often imbricated in sterile leaves, approximate or sometimes 

 crowded in sporophylls; excepting sometimes the uppermost, 

 dilated at base and auricled on upper side or both sides, lanceo- 

 late or subfalcate or, especially the lower, oblong, the lowermost 

 often unequally roundish-deltoid, obtuse or subacute or acute, 

 subentire or undulate, or, especially the lower, slightly crenate, 

 or serrate or, sometimes, obliquely cleft or pinnatifid, the lobes 

 mostly serrate; beneath very obscurely, minutely and sparingly 

 paleaceous, upper surface similar or glabrous: rachis reddish 

 or light or dark chestnut-brown, glossy, terete or subterete below, 

 above more or less furrowed on face, sparingly and obscurely 

 paleaceous, palea similar to that of upper part of petiole; color 

 of rachis in large leaves sometimes encroaching on under side of 

 midveins of pinnae: color otherwise olive green: texture firmly 

 membranaceous. 



Venation pinnate, wholly free or with occasional areolae : pri- 

 mary branches of pinnae's midveins, excepting the two basal, com- 

 monly once forked or at apices of pinnae simple, or in highly 

 developed, especially in lobed or pinnatifid pinnae, often bearing 

 simple or once-forked branches and each forming a midvein of a 

 lobe or segment; superior basal primary branch bearing a few 

 simple or once-forked branches and forming midvein of superior 

 basal auricle ; inferior basal primary branch once-forked or sim- 

 ilar to superior one, forming midvein of inferior basal auricle 

 when this auricle is present. 



Sori oblong or linear, borne on branches of pinnae's midveins 

 and often on branches of midveins of pinnae's auricles or other 

 lobes or segments; each sorus on a primary branch of the mid- 

 vein, partly below its superior basal branch, extending along or 



