POLYPODIUM. 



249 



found simultaneously near Nettlecombe and near Windermere ; it apparently 

 embodies all the different variations shown by other forms. As a truly 

 composite sport it is particularly interesting, some of its fronds, which reach 

 lift, long, being, like those of P. v. ramosum, branched for two-thirds of 

 their stalks ; others are partly forked, as in the variety bifidum, and partly 

 serrated, as in the forms serratum and omnilacerwm ; while others again are 

 either much enlarged and plumose, like those of cambricum and semilacerum, 

 or sometimes eared, like those of auritum, 



P. Wageneri — Wa'-gen-er-i ( Wegener's) . Synonymous with P. pectinatum. 



P. (Dipteris) Wallichii— Dip'-ter-is ; Wal-licb'-I-T (Wallich's), R. Brown. 



This is a very singular and thoroughly distinct, stove species, native of 

 the sub-tropical region of Northern India, and said by Beddome to occur in 

 Khasya, Bhotan, and Assam, and on the Pundoa Mountains. Its curious 

 fronds, in two distinct halves, borne on stalks 2ft. to 3ft. long, are 1ft. to 3ft. 

 in length and much broader ; the main lobes reach three-quarters of the way 

 down, and have their edges not at all toothed, while their ultimate lobes are 

 sharp-pointed. These fronds are of a leathery texture, dark green on their 

 upper surface, and dirty-white or light rusty colour beneath ; their main veins, 

 which are very prominent, are repeatedly forked, and the small and abundant 

 spore masses are generally disposed in distinct rows, not confluent, but equally 

 distributed over the surface, and often of a gummy nature. — Hooker, Species 

 Filicum, v., p. 99. Beddome, Ferns of British India, t. 80. 



P. (Drynaria) WilldenOYii — Dryn-a'-ri-a ; Will-den-o'-vi-i (Willdenow's), 

 Bory. 



A handsome, stove species, native of Mauritius and Bourbon Island ; it 

 must not be confounded with P. Willdenovii of Blume, which is synonymous 

 with P. pnopinquum. It is a plant with barren and fertile fronds totally 

 different : both kinds are produced from a thick rhizome of a woody nature, 

 clothed with narrow, crisped scales about Jin. long and of a bright rusty- 

 brown colour, and are of a leathery texture. The barren fronds, 4in. to 6in. 

 long and 3in. to 4in. broad, have their lobes short, blunt, and rounded ; the 

 fertile ones, ljft. to 2ft. long and Bin. to lOln. broad, have their upper lobes 

 4in. to Sin. long, narrow, sharp- pointed, and reaching down to the rachis, the 



