113 



Frequent on trees in forests on the highest ridges and peaks through 

 the Blue Mountain range ; hardly found below 6,000 ft. altitude. This 

 has distinctly oval sori, which though partially confluent at last, never 

 lose altogether their distinctness. The fronds are less deeply cut in 

 the upper fertile portion, and the sori are borne at the base of the con- 

 nected, segments, not out in the lobe. This species shows the com- 

 pleted transition from characteristic Xiphopteris with its ducurrent 

 sori into normal grammitis with separate oval sori. 



9. P. Sherringii, Baker — Stipites densely tufted, short if any clear 

 of the decurrent wings of the fronds, filiform, wiry and blackish ; 

 fronds l£-2£ in. L, 2-2| li. b., the apex blunt and terminated in a lobe, 

 narrowed at the base ; rather pale green, clothed with stiff scattered 

 spreading brown hairs, opaque, stiff; cut nearly to the midrib into 

 rounded, broadish decurrent lobes with an open oblique sinus between, 

 showing a clear wing to the filiform flexuose rachis which is concealed 

 in the pagina ; sori solitary, terminal on the spur near the base of the 

 short veins. Rare at 4,000-5,000 ft. altitude in the Port Royal moun- 

 tains in the Newton district, on boughs of forest trees. This resem- 

 bles basi-attenuatum in the entire rounded lobes, decurrent and dwin- 

 dling at the base of the fronds, but is more densely tufted, with short 

 stiff coriaceous fronds, which are much less ciliate. The fronds are 

 erect or erecto-spreading and are so stiff that in course of time the pagina 

 decays, leaving the rigid black midribs standing mixed with the growing 

 fronds. The rootstock in the specimen before me forms an upright 

 tuft of matted fibres nearly finger thick. 



10. P. nimbatitm, Jenm. — Stipites densely tufted, short or hardly any 

 clear ; fronds erect or erecto-spreading, 2 - 3 in. 1. r| - 2 li. b., 

 linear, narrowed at the base, the apex bluntish pointed, deeply pinna- 

 tifid ; segments close, rounded, entire, f - nearly I li. d. and b., broadly 

 adnate and confluent at the base, opaque, coriaceous ; a dull brownish 

 green, villose with spreading hairs ; rachis stiff, filiform, black, con- 

 cealed in the pagina, which eventually drops from it ; sori solitary at 

 the base of the lobes on the spur of the short dark veins, the lurid 

 brown hairs of the receptacles protruding. — Journ. Bot. 1886. p. 271. 



Infrequent above 5,000 ft. alt. on trees in forests; most resembling 

 trichomanoides. but smaller stiffer and more densely tufted, with close 

 entire rounded shorter segments which are not lobulate, and villose, 

 instead of scaly rootstock. The vestiture of young fronds has a lurid 

 reddish tinge, and are yellowish green. 



11. P. exiguum, Griseb. (not Heward). -Rootstock slender, erect, fibrous 

 and scaly ; stipites tufted, blackish, filiform, very short ; fronds f -2 in. 

 1. 1-1| li. b., narrowed and decurrent at the base, the apex terminating 

 in a small lobe, naked, membranous, pellucid, clear green, cut deeply 

 throughout into blunt or pointed, ovate-oblong alternate segments, 

 which are fully adnate and decurrent at the base, up-curved on the un- 

 derside, with a small lobe or crenature within the hallow on the upper, 

 •|-f li. d. less b. ; rachis stiff, but filiform, black, very flexuose, stiff ; 

 veins simple in the barren, but with a short spur in the fertile segments, 

 not reaching the edge, blackish ; sori solitary terminal on the anterior 

 branch, near the base of both lobe and segment. 



Abundant on the highest ridges and peaks, to which it is confined, 

 clothing in large masses the trunks of trees. A very pretty, distinct 



