118 



& few scattered hairs on tha midribs. Eventually the segments are de- 

 ciduous leaving the stiff slender rachises 



22. P. heterotrichum, Baker. — Hootstock small fibrous ; stipites 

 tufted, very numerous, less than an in. 1. slender, wiry clothed with 

 long soft spreading hairs ; fronds pendent and over-lapping, flaccid, dull 

 gray-or rusty-green ; 3-8 ins. 1. in. b. ligulate, or oblong-ligulate,. 

 little reduced at the base, quite pinnate; segments numerous close, 

 spreading, obliquely, adnate or decurrent at the base, linear-oblong, 

 blunt oi pointed, 1 li. w. in. 1 entire or rardy serrulato-dentate, 

 the upper margin often with a slight curve ; rachis filiform, black, and 

 with both surfaces puberulous-glandulose, and rusty-ciliate with soft 

 spreading hairs ; veins short, simple, oblique, reaching halfway or 

 more to the margin ; sori copious, dorsal or terminal, close, in two con- 

 tiguous rows near the midiib, 4-7 to a side. — Journ. Bot. 1879 p. 262. 



Frequent on trees in forest about the highest peaks at 7,000 ft. alt. ; 

 gathered on Blue Mountain and John Crow peaks ; intermediate between 

 cultratum and cnpillare. From the latter its hairy surface at sight 

 distinguishes it, and from the former, the smaller size, close narrow 

 pointed segments, which are fully adnate, though sometimes a little- 

 narrowed and not rounded or auricled at the base on tha upperside, and 

 the copious close brown sori. In the mature fronds the pinnao of the 

 lower half or third are usually dead and dry. 



23. P. pendulum, Swartz. — Root-stock small or shortly repent 

 and elongated, clothed with reticulated conspicuously ciliated scales ; 

 stipite tufted, very short, if any clear of the decurrent wings, black 

 and gray with stellate pubemlae ; fronds pendant, ^-1 ft; 1. |-1 in. w., 

 subcoriaceous, copiously pellucid-dotted, glabrous, bright, pale, brown- 

 green, glossy tapering to the attenuated base and less so to the short 

 entire pointed apex, pinnatifid nearly to the rachis ; segments spreading 

 entire 4/-^ in. 1., 1^2 li.b., obtuse-acute pointed, dilated and broadly adnate 

 and confluent at the base, with an open rounded sinus between that is once 

 or twice their own width, the reduced lower ones triangular ; rachis- 

 filiform, black beneath, above covered by the pagina, rather flexuose ; 

 veins and ribs raised on the upperside, the former short, not reaching 

 the margin, the apices thickened and glandulose above ; sori 2-b' to a 

 side, close to the midvein, on a very short basal spur, sunk the opposite 

 surf ace papillose just within the glands of the veinlets. 



Infrequent on trunks of trees in forest at 6,000 ft. altitude. In the 

 the larger stat' s which sometimes reach 14, ft. long, the segments are di- 

 lated nearly though not quite equally at the base on both sides, and 

 are therefore only hardly more decurrent than surcurrent. The species 

 is well marked by the freely ciliated light-coloured scales of therootstock, 

 papillose glandulose surface, and sori lateral near the base of the veins. 

 It varies in colour from dark to rather yellowish-green, and is always 

 clear and bright. Some creature seems to teed on the fronds, for out 

 of possibly, a hundred, gathered over a series of years, only one is- 

 entire. 



24. P. lasiolepis, Malt. — Rootstock shortly-repent 2-3 1 thick, densely 

 clothed with dark-brown reticulated and ciliate scales ; stipites sub- 

 tufted, cilate with spreading hair strong, dark coloured, from hardly 

 any to 1 in. 1. ; fronds 6-9 in. 1. f-fths in. w. firm, ciliate, especially 

 on the rachis and margins dark or light clear brown-green ; pinnatifid 



