117 



-with a terminal sorus, upperside sprinkled with crustaceous dots situat- 

 ed over the sori.— Journ. Bot. 1877. P. 265. 



Frequent and plentiful on trees above 6,000 ft. altitude along the 

 higher ridges, forming large patches on the trunks of trees. The pinnae 

 are deciduous, leaving the hair- like rachises, which are persistent and 

 durable and freely interlaced, on the plants. This feature and the white 

 silvery dots on the upper surface, are good characters to recognise the 

 species by. — Endemic. 



20. P. Jubmforme, Kaulf. — Rootstock slender short erect, clothed 

 with a few acuminate, minute, reticulated scales ; stipites tufted, very 

 short or hardly any clear of the decurrent membrane ; f ron ds 4-9 in. 1. w. 

 firm but moderately thin and pellucid, naked, light green ; tapering both 

 ways, fully pinnate. Segments close, 1 li. w. 2-3 li. b. entire or the 

 fertile slightly sinuate, linear-oblong, blunt or acute, adnate-decurrent 

 at the base, with a close oblique sinus between them ; rachis black, fili- 

 form, nearly or quite naked ; veins simple, evident, falling short of the 

 edge. Sori terminal confined to the outer half or two-thirds of the 

 lobes, immersed, the opposite side papillose. 



Gathered by Swartz whose spicimen is in the British Museum ; but 

 collectors since have not rediscovered it. Grieebach united it with 

 pendulum, which it somewhat resembles, but is much smaller. . The 

 narrow-tapering character of the fronds, with no distinct terminal lobe ; 

 firm but thin texture naked surfaces, sori confined to the outer part of 

 the segments, where it becomes confluent, and the skeletonised scales of 

 the rookstock, sufficiently distinguished it. A very common tropical 

 American species. P. parvulum seems to be the Swartzian name, and 

 if so has priority, though applied since by Blume to an East Indian 

 species. 



21. P. rigescens, Bory. — Rootstock elongated, short-creeping or sub- 

 erect the scales linear-acuminate, dark, reticulated ; stipites tufted or 

 apart, stiff, blackish, 1-1^ in. 1. hispid-pilose with black spreading 

 hairs ; fronds 6-10 in. 1. ^-f in. w. linear-lanceolate, rigid, erect but 

 usually curved, dark brownish-black, green above, paler beneath, taper- 

 ing equally to apex and base, terminating above with a caudate entire 

 point ; coriaceous and opaque ; naked except among the capsules and on 

 the rigid black rachis, which latter is clothed like the stipites but least in 

 degree or at length naked above ; cut almost or quite to the rachis into 

 close oblong round-ended segments which are J-^ in. 1. and 1-1^ li. w., 

 straight, entire the base obliquely or subequally adnate and little di- 

 lated, lower ones dwindling to less than a line deep, but not separated, 

 and more rounded than deltoid ; veins obscure, simple, reaching the 

 margin, capsules mixed with bristling dark hispid hairs ; sori dorsal, 

 medial, 4-6 to a side, reaching from the bottom to the top of the seg- 

 ment, the lower third of the frond barren. — Hook. & Grev. Icon. Fil. 

 t. 216. 



Frequent on the branches of trees above 5000 ft. altitude ; among 

 the most rigid of all this miscellaneous group of species ; uniformly found 

 growing on the branches of trees of the high ridges to which the dis- 

 tribution is confined, not on the trunks as most of the other 

 similar species do. As in some other species, the specimens stain the 

 mounting paper a deep green, leaving a distinct impressson perma- 

 manent when dry. The margins are reflexed, and there are casually 



