286 



veinlets. forming a row on each side close to the midrib ; involucres 

 orbicular, large, deciduous, at first cup-shaped. Aspidium coriaceum, 

 Griesb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. p. 690. Polypodium, Sw. 



Frequent on decaying logs in shady and open places, and in coffee 

 fields, at 2000-4000 ft. altitude; well marked by the prostrate creeping 

 rootstock, pale, deltoid, and very coriaceous fronds, and large sori and 

 involucres, which turn black with age. A stiff plant but of rather pen- 

 dent habit, widely in both America and Africa and through the whole 

 south temperate zone. 



12. A tr if oli at am, Swartz. — Stipites tufted from the crown of a short 

 oblique or decumbent orbicular, flat headed, rootstock, erect, 1-1 J ft. 1., 

 dark bright brown, channelled, naked, or fibrillose at the base ; frond 

 \-\\ ft. L 5-10 in. w. membrane chartaceous, pellucid, naked or 

 puberulous. dark green trifid, tripartite or with 2-3 pair of opposite, 

 erect -spreading, lateral pinnae, of which the lowest are largest and 

 petioled \-\ in. 1., distant from the next pair above ; 5-9 in. L and 

 nearly as wide at the both sides lobed base, above which they are entire, 

 sinuate lobed or pinnatifid ; superior pinnae equilateral, plain sinuate or 

 lobate, acuminate, free or adnate at the base, which is usually not much 

 enlarged if at all ; the terminal pinnae plain, lobed or tripartite ; main 

 veins costate, flexuose, about \ in. apart, usually stramineous or brown, 

 as are the costae ; areola tion fine, with diverging free included veinlets; 

 sori forming a single series on each side of the primary veins ; 

 involucres flat, peltate orbicular, repand, persistent. 



Common at low elevations in woods and forests, variable in cutting in 

 the different stages of growth. It may be gathered in full fruit from 

 the small entire unlobed state to that with three pairs of free pinnae and 

 a pair not free which form the basal divisions of the trilobed terminal 

 pinnae, and all more or les9 lobed or pinnatifid. In the larger fronds 

 the basal pinnae are lobed on both sides and form a miniature of the 

 whole frond. 



Aspidium he radei folium, W. PI. Fil. t. 147; is a sub-species, of which 

 I have beautiful Jamaica specimens, differing in its firmer texture, often 

 several pairs of pinnae, all free and petioled, glossy polished stems and 

 rachises and dark green shining surfaces. Probably PI. Fil. t. 149, 

 which is a span or less long and wide in the frond and simply trifoliate, 

 is a small variety, of the same glossy bright colour, free petiolate divi- 

 sions, and copious sori. 



Genus XXII — Xephrodium, Eich. 



Sori punctiform, orbicular reniform, in parallel series with the final 

 ribs ; or scattered receptacles merely thickened points, dorsal or termi- 

 nal on the veins ; involucres superior, the same shape as the sori, attached 

 by the sinus, free around the edge, often deciduous or only rudimentary 

 and disappearing as the sori mature ; veins free or anastomosing ; fronds 

 varying from a few inches to several feet in size, and from subentire to 

 decompound. 



This is one of the largest genera, numbering over five hundred species 

 in its general distribution, of which about a seventh or eighth are re- 

 presented in this Flora. Some of these exist in great individual abun- 

 dance, and form a large proportion of the vegetation of the country, 

 especially of waysides and other open or half-open situations, the 



