120 



outer half. B is the commonest of all and very variable. It is 

 best recognised by its usually more open segments which show a ten- 

 dency more or less developed to form an auricle and become free of the 

 rachis on the upper (and sometimes the under) side. They resemble 

 in shape those of Asplenium parvulum. C is a variety of the last in 

 which the pinnae are lobed, or changed entirely into frond-like 

 branches from 1 to 4 in. 1. |-f rd. in. w. making the fronds as broad 

 as long. 



26. P. capillare, Desv. — Stipites tufted from an erect fibrous ciliate 

 scaly and villose rootstock, winged to the base or nearly so by the de- 

 current sides of the fronds, deciduously villose, wiry and dark coloured ; 

 fronds prostrate or pendent, 3-10 in. 1. ^-1 or 3 in. w., shortly reduced 

 at the base, nearly or quite pinnate throughout chartaceous, pellucid, 

 naked or slightly puberulous-glandulose, pale green and rather glossy 

 on the upperside; segments close linear, adnate-decurrent, the point acute 

 £-1 or 2 in. 1. about 1 li. more or less w. with an oblique open or acute 

 sinus between ; margins more or less conspicuously sinuate, rarely dis- 

 tinctly toothed ; rachis black, filiform ; veins simple (rarely forked) 

 very oblique, not reaching the margin, midveins flexuose ; sori ter- 

 minal, separate, slightly sunk or superficial. P. detipiens, Hook. Sp. 

 Fil. vol. 4. t. 279. B. 



Frequent on trees in the forests round the summits of the highest 

 peaks at 7,000 ft. altitude. It varies a good deal in size and the 

 larger and smaller states look very different. It is best distinguished 

 from graveolens by the more distinctly sinuate pinnae, the margin be- 

 ing expanded where the sori occur and contracted between, which in 

 the smaller plants gives quite a crinkled aspect. It is also destitute 

 of the strong scent of that species, and occupies a higher elevation. 

 The pinnae sometimes are transformed into elongated pinnate frond- 

 like branches, 2-3 in. 1. as in cultratum. 



27. P. graveolens, Baker. — Rootstock fibrous, densely clothed with 

 small brown ciliate scales and soft reddish spreading {omentum, up- 

 right, nearly pencil-thick ; stipites densely tufted, wiry, clothed like 

 the rootstock, ^-2 in. 1. ; fronds prostrate or pendent, ^-1 ft. 1. 1-2 or 

 3 in. w., little or hardly reduced at the base, the apex often terminat- 

 ing in a long linear sinuate or lobate caudate segment, fully pinnate 

 throughout or nearly so to the thread-like rachis, chartaceous, pellucid, 

 puberulous, often with granular dust beneath, pale green, glossy above ; 

 pinnae linear, acute or obtuse, faintly crenulate-repand, spreading or 

 erecto-spreading 1-1 £ or 2 in. 1. about 1 li. more or less w., equal or 

 unequal in length, adnate-decurrent at the base with an oblique rounded 

 sinus and open space 1-4 times their own width between ; vein6 very 

 oblique, simple or forked, not reaching the edge ; sori terminal, about 

 an |th in. apart alternate or subopposite in contiguous rows. — Journ. 

 Bot. 1877. P. 265. 



Abundant on trees in the forest clothing the ridges at 5,000-6,000 ft. 

 altitude. Less variable in size than capillare, more constantly uniform 

 in habit, the pinnae more even in the margins, and much more open 

 between, and the rootstock more densely villose, the bright coloured 

 scales being concealed thinly. Most strongly scented with a perfume 

 that apparently loses none of its fragrance with lapse of time. The 

 veins are so oblique as to run nearly parallel with the midrib. 



