115 



several inches thick. In this state it is prostrate, but in the early- 

 growth erect, a. is found in forests at 5000-7000 ft. altitude. It is 

 well distinguished by the conspicuously rusty- villose rachises and ribs, 

 and the copiously like coloured pubescence of the parenchyma, and 

 which in the glinting sunrays of the forest give it a most lovely and 

 charming aspect, b. is always destitute of involucres. Some states 

 however are quite identical with the type in the character of their 

 clothing, while others are almost or quite naked, c. is a smaller form 

 in which the lowest pair of pinnae are equilateral and not at all en- 

 larged. It is common on the banks at Tweedside near 2nd Breakfast 

 Spring, St. Andrew. 



31. N. patulum, Baker — Rootstock erect, short stoutish, densely 

 paleaceous with bright light tan-brown scales ; stipites caespitose, 

 faintly channelled, stramineous, J-l ft. 1. freely clothed at the base 

 with deciduous scales like those of the rootstock which in old plants 

 leave scars ; fronds oblong lanceolate, acuminate, a little narrowed, or 

 not, at the base, variable in size, less than 1-2 J ft. 1. 3-12 in. w. ; 

 pinnae numerous, spreading nearly horizontally, opposite or alternate, 

 distant or subdistant, nearly sessile, lanceolate-acuminate, 1^-6 in. L f - 

 2i in. w. ; chartaceous, pale, straw-green, naked but viscidulose be- 

 death ; pinnulae oblong or lanceolate, blunt or tapering and acute or 

 acuminate, contiguous or apart, the outer ones adnate-decurrent. the 

 interior free, those on the superior side rather larger than on the in- 

 ferior, J-1J in 1. 2-6 li. w. ; merely toothed or more or less deeply pin- 

 natifid, segments on the superior side the larger, 2-5 1. L l'-lj 1. w. 

 oblong, blunt, entire or crenate; rachis and costse stramineous ; veins pin- 

 nate, branches forked or simple ; sori medial ; involucres copious, con- 

 vex, pale. 



Frequent on open or half open banks at from 4000-5000 ft. altitude* 

 This is intermediate in habit between the decompound and simply pecti- 

 nate-pinnaed groups. In fronds which are mature, and f ul ly fertile, 

 there is much variations in size, and in the character of the base. 

 Some are reduced there, others are not, while the lesser ones are some- 

 times a little enlarged. Its shape, general pale straw coloured surface, 

 and pale dough-coloured involucres well mark it. The habit of growth, 

 is spreading or pendent. To be compared with Nephrodium mexicanum 

 which see. — Mexico southwards according to the Syn. Fil. 



32. JV. nemorosum, Jenm.— Rootstock stout, erect, the crown densely 

 clothed with long, finely attenuated ferruginous scales ; stipites 1-1 J ft. 

 1. caespitose, spreading, freely scaly, the base with a tuft of bright fer- 

 ruginous hair-like scales ascending from the rootstock, fronds bitripin- 

 nate, 1\ ft. 1. nearly or quite as wide, tinged from the vestiture aureous- 

 brown throughout, chartaceous, the apex finely dentate-acuminate, the 

 base less expanded than the middle, rachis costae and ribs freely clothed 

 with fibrillose and bullate fine aureous scales ; pinnae erecto-spreadjng 

 bipinnate, sessile, 8-10 in. 1. 3-4J in. w. linear-oblong, serrato-acu rui- 

 nate ; pinnulae contiguous, sessile, pinnato-pinnatifid, barely connected 

 by the decurrent membrane, serrato-acuminate segments oblique, 

 dentate, bluntish, 3-4 li. 1. to the oblique open but acute sinus, 1-1J H. 

 w. ; veins pinnate, simple ; sori copious, medial, in opposite pairs ; 

 involucres fugacious at maturity. — PI. Fil. t. 43. Aspidium, Willd. 



Grisebach, ia his Fl. Brit. W. Ind. Is., quotes the above figure for. 



