ANTROPHYUM. 



407 



A. niphoboloides — niph-ob'-ol-o-i'-des (Mphobolus-like), Hooker. 



This singular, stove Fern, native of Northern India, the Philippines, and 

 the Malaccas, though described under that name by Hooker in his " Species 

 Filicum," vol. v., p. 94, is synonymous with Niphobolus floccigerum of 

 Mettenius, equally described in the same volume at page 45. — Hooker, Synopsis 

 Filicum, p. 351. 



A. obtusum — ob-tu'-sum (blunt). Synonymous with A. Boryanum. 



A. parvulum — par'-vul-urn (rather small). A variety of A. plantagineum. 



A. plantagineum — plan-ta-gin'-e-um (resembling Plantago or Rib Grass), 

 Kaulfuss. 

 This stove species, with which 

 A. Lessonii is identical, has a wider 

 range of habitat than most others, 

 as it is found in Ceylon, the 

 Himalayas, and Malay, also in the 

 Philippine and Polynesian Islands. 

 Its fronds, Gin. to 9in. long and 

 ljin. to 2in. broad, are of a thick 

 and coriaceous (leathery) texture, 

 broadest one-third of the way down, 

 and while their extremity is sharply 

 pointed, their lower part is gradu- 

 ally narrowed into a stem lin. to 

 4in. long. There is no midrib 

 apparent, and the areola?, though 

 sometimes 3in. long, are only |in. 

 broad. The copious sori (spore 

 masses) are deeply immersed (em- 

 bedded) in the texture of the 

 fronds, and are frequently uniting. 

 See Fig. 56 (reduced from Col. 

 Beddome's " Ferns of Southern 

 India," by the kind permission of the author). — Hooker, Species Filicum, 

 v., p. 170, Beddome, Ferns of Southern India, t. 52. 



