128 



pie in the outer part ; sori dorsal near the forking, single or double, the 

 rows rather nearer the midrib than margin. — 'Icon. Fil. t. 203. Aspi- 

 dum, Gr. 



Common on wet rocks and banks among the lower hills and ascend- 

 ing to ..',000 ft. alt., well marked by its small size and densely tufted 

 habit with the hastate pinnae. The rootstock is often 2-3 in. 1. com- 

 posed mainly of strong wiry compact descending root9 which spread 

 only when they reach the surface of the rock on which the plant is 

 growing. The sori are as often double as single, one being borne near 

 the base of each limb of the veins, so close together that they appear 

 single. Grisebach must have detected trace of an involucre, as he re- 

 moved the species to Aspidium. 



44. P. Ji a v op u notation Kaulf. — Rootstock stout, decumbant, stipites 

 strong, erect, dark brown, deciduously scaly below, channelled l|-2 ft. 

 1. ; fronds ample, 2-3 ft. 1. 1-1§ or 2 ft. w., pinnate, the upper part 

 pinnatifid, truncate and not reduced at the base, membrano-chartaceous 

 and freely pellucid dotted, naked, dark green above, paler beneath, 

 rachis strong, channelled, subangular, slightly fibrillose beneath ; pin- 

 nae numerous, spreading, 8-10 in. 1. 1 in. or more or less w , serrato- 

 acuminate. sessile, the upper ones adherent on the inferior base and 

 decurrent, free on the upper, which is the deeper side, and developed 

 into an enlarged lobe, lower ones quite free shortly stipitate and rather 

 rounded, cut |— Jrd to the costse into shallow rounded oblique lobes, 

 which are 1^-2 li. w. and slightly crenate ; veins pinnate, about 4-5 to 

 a side, simple, the basal ones not uniting but falling suddenly short 

 within the margin ; sori medial, dark when dry. — Aspidium rotundatum, 

 "Willd. PI. Fil. t. 38. 



A very fine species, marked by the basal veins not uniting but curi- 

 ously, falling short in the middle of the integument, the pellucid dots 

 scattered over the surface, and the upper pinnae adherent at the base 

 on the lower side and decurrent on the rachis while free and enlarged 

 on the upper side it resembles very much some forms of Nephrodium 

 serrulatum, jViett. which species is sometimes confounded with it, but 

 from which the free veins clearly distinguish it. It i9 ascribed to Ja- 

 maica by Hooker, on the authority of Wilson, n. 516, no locality men- 

 tioned. 



45. P. pubescens, Radd. — Rootstock upright, the crown clothed with 

 few pale-brown scales ; stipites caespitose, erect rather slender a few to 

 several inches long, channelled, gray-pubescent ; fronds chartaceous, 

 light green, pellucid, pale pubescent, chiefly on the slender channelled 

 rachis costae and ribs, ft- 1- 3-6 in. w. bipinnatifid ; pinnae nu- 

 merous, contiguous or apart, alternate or opposite, spreading obliquely 

 or horizontally, reduced gradually to the acuminate pinnatifid apex of 

 the frond, and below, finally, to minute distant trilobed segments, cen- 

 tral ones 3—3^ in. 1. |rd— f in. w. as wide or wider at the quite sessile 

 base, acuminate with a serrate-entire point, within this pinnatifid nearly 

 to the costae ; segments horizontal or oblique, f— \\ li. w. in. L 

 acute, close, the narrow sinus acute, the margins even or faintly cre- 

 nate, often a little reflexed ; veins simple, slightly oblique, 5-9 to a side 

 all fertile ; sori nearer the edge, often apparently amorphus when ma- 

 ture. — Radd. Fiante Bras. t. 34. 



Common in forest and on banks by waysides and streams, above 



