259 



8. S.patula, Spring. —Fronds light green, often silvery beneath, 

 membranous, quite prostrate, triquadripinnate, 4-6 or 12 in. 1. 1-3 or 

 4 in. b., branched and often reduced from the base upwards, rachis dis- 

 tinct throughout, very slender, and extended beyond the upper decre- 

 scent branches in a threadlike tail, quite laxly clothed throughout 

 with minute leaves of one kind only, which are not spinulose-pointed, 

 the outer margin at the base spinulose-ciliate ; primary branches 

 spreading, about 1 li. w. over the leaves, the inferior ones with a ter- 

 minal tail like that of the primary rachis ; leaves imbricated, the ma- 

 jor spreading, oblong, the point acute but not pungent, outer margin 

 ciliate, f li. 1. J-^rd li. w. ; minor leaves ovate, spinulose-pointed, 

 spinulose-ciliate on the outer margin, Jrd-J li. 1. ; spikes s'lort, f li. w., 

 4-stichous ; bracts loose, ciliate-edged or not ; sporangia minute. — 

 Baker, Fern. Al. p. 46. 



Infrequent on open rocks and banks at various altitudes up to 3,000 

 or 4,000 ft. This like setigera, is marked by the slender elongated 

 rachis, clothed above and below the frond portion proper with small 

 difform leaves of one kind, that run through the front., extending 

 tail-like at the top, and also in the principal branches. The contrast 

 is the greater owing to the leaves of the intermediate parts being close 

 and imbricated. Though distinctly 4-stichous, the spikes are so short 

 and the bracts so lax that they are not very distinctly angular. The 

 leaves of the stem and rachis resemble in character the lateral leaves 

 of the branchlets, but are reduced in size and more ovate in shape. 



9. S. setigera, Jenm. — Stems firm, slender, suberect, clothed with 

 firmly appressed minute leaves throughout, ribbed when dry, and 

 stramineous ; fronds compact or lax, somavvhat variable in shape, ovate, 

 deltoid or lanceolate, extending into a long slender rauicant flagelli- 

 form tail, tripinnate, the primary branches some limes extended like the 

 main axis of the frond and radicant, dark green, firm ; major leaves 

 on the main axis contiguous or close, obliquely and flatly spreading, 

 sub cordate, ovate-deltoid, hardly acute, J- 1 li. 1. less w., the base 

 ciliate : those of the outer branches imbricating, oblong or linear-ob- 

 long, obliquely acute-pointed ; the branches 1-1 J li. w., over the leaves, 

 minor leaves ascending, close or contiguous, ovate, spinulose-pointed, 

 inequilateral, the b^se cordate, ciliate or spinulose-edged all round, 

 about J li. 1. and extending to the end of the thread-like tail which is 

 devoid of major leaves ; spikes 1-2 li. 1., the shorter ones lax, with 

 open convex, keeled acuminate bracts, pressed back by the large 

 sporangia. Baker, Fern Al. p. 75. 



By its habit of extending and rooting at the end of the tail, and 

 there producing new-growth, this resembles in hab t patula as before 

 said, but is a larger and darker coloured plant. The slender unbranched 

 stem at the base is 2-6 in. 1. ; the frond 3-6 in. and the extended 

 outer part from a few inches to a span or more. SomeMmes short al- 

 ternate sub-distant branches extend upwards on the prolonged outer 

 part, thus making the frond a foot or less long. 



10. 8. stolonifera Spring. — Fronds trailing, a foot or more 1„ 

 extended into a whip-like tail at the end, freely decompound; rachises 

 angled, jointed at the nodes ; branches short, compound ; major leaves 

 apart on the rachises, close in the outer parts, oblique, oblong or 

 oblong-lanceolate, acute, sub-cordate, nearly equilateral but laterally in- 



