POLYPODIUM. 



93 



breadth, although they are oftener of the same breadth and only l£ft. to ljft. 

 in length, and narrowed very gradually below. These fronds are of a very 

 leathery texture, naked on their upper surface, but densely clothed on their 

 under- side with a dirty white, woolly substance of a persistent nature. The 

 small, bright-coloured, closely-set sori 

 (spore masses) are not immersed ; 

 they cover the under- side of the 

 upper part of the frond (Fig. 32). 

 — Hooker, Species Filicum, v., p. 44. 

 Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 hi., p. 186. Beddome, Ferns of 

 British India, t. 81. 



Fig. 32. 



Polypodium acrostichoides 

 (much reduced). 



P. adenophorus — ad-e-noph'- 



or-us (gland - bearing), 



Hooker and Arnott. 

 A stove species, native of the 

 Sandwich Islands and Peru, with 

 sub- sessile (almost stalkless), flaccid, 

 pendulous fronds, 6in. to 12in. long, 

 fin. to lin. broad, cut down nearly 

 or quite to the midrib into sharp - 

 pointed, slightly undulated, horizontal or even rather decurved leaflets Jin. broad 

 and enlarged at the base. They are of a somewhat leathery texture and nearly 

 naked on both sides, and the sori (spore masses) are disposed in rows, close to 

 the midrib. — Hooker, Species Filicum, iv., p. 195. 



P. (Niphobolus) adnascens — Mph-ob'-ol-us ; ad-nasc'-ens (adnascent), 

 Swartz. 



Contrary to the majority of the plants comprised in the genus, this stove 

 species, native of Ceylon, Fiji, the Mascarene Islands, and Southern India 

 (where, according to Beddome, it grows in forests from the plains to 5000ft. 

 elevation), is provided with two kinds of totally different fronds, the barren 

 ones being scarcely half the size of the fertile ones. The difference, however, 

 is not limited to size only, for it is further shown in the shape, which in the 



