132 



or terminal on the veins. The rootstock branches and spreads widely 

 under the surface of the ground, and the bright colouring of all parts of 

 the surface and sori gives the ample fronds a very attractive aspect. 



52. P. rugulosum, Lab ill. — Rootstock slender, widely repent, stipites 

 apart, erect, dark brown, channelled, freely paleaceous and slightly as- 

 perous, 1-3 ft. 1. ; fronds 1^-3^ ft. 1. 1^-3 ft. w erect, tripinnate, del- 

 toid-oblong, thinly chartaceous, viscid, fibrous pellucid, rachis, costae 

 and ribs, densely clothed with appressed imbricating glossy bright brown 

 scales, and faintly asperous ; pinnae spreading nearly horizontally, dis- 

 tant in opposite or sub-opposite pairs, I-I2 ft- 1- 3-6 in w., the upper 

 sessile, the lower petiolate ; pinnulae oblong, acute, fully pinnate only 

 at the sessile base, 2-3| in. 1. 1 in w ; segments \-\ in. 1. 2-3 li. w., 

 oblong, adnate, decurrent, upper base decurved. lobed, dentate orcrenate, 

 the end rounded and even ; veins once or twice forked in the teeth or 

 lobules ; sori copious, dorsal on the anterior veinlet, near above the fur- 

 cation, bright fulvous 



Infrequent in the higher mountain regions on banks skirting bye- 

 ways and forests and other half open places ; easily mistaken for 

 Hyjiolepis repens and H. Purdieana with which it conforms in habit 

 and cutting, differing by the dorsal, medial sori too distant to be covered 

 by marginal crenatures. This and punctatum and the local species of 

 Sypolepis in their final cutting resemble the more compound species 

 of Lastrea, such as villosum, amplum, Grisebachii and nemorosum. 



53. P. nigrescenttum, Jenm. — Rootstock strong, stout decumbent or 

 oblique, shortly repent, dark, scurfy, clothed with a few minute dark- 

 brown scales ; stipites more or less tufted, erect, 3-7 in. 1., slightly 

 channelled, puberulous, a few minute dark brown scales at the base ; 

 fronds erect, pinnate, subcoriaceous, dark green, glossy, pellucid, 

 glabrous, the rachis brown puberulous, 3-5 in 1. 2-4 br. composed of 

 3-7 spreading sessile oblong lanceolate acuminate pinnae and a similar 

 terminal one, which are 1^-3 in. 1. ^rd-i in. w., the upper ones trun- 

 cate, the lower rounded or sub-cuneate and not reduced, repand, the 

 margins slightly lobed or serrulate- crenate ; veins 4-5 to a side, the 

 opposite ones connecting at an angle with an intermediary that runs to 

 the sinus and is very pellucid at the top ; sori copious, occupying all but 

 the exterior veins, and covering most of the surface. — Gard. Chron. Jan. 

 26, 1895. 



Among the lower hills; St. Mary parish. Intermediate between 

 crenutum and ob iteration in its general characters. Its characteristic 

 features are the relatively strong rootstock, small densely grouped 

 fronds, repand and crinkled very slightly cut pinnae and copious 

 sori. 



As a rule the terminal segment is shortened, which gives the fronds 

 an oblong or quadrariform aspect that is very characteristic. As in all 

 these species, in the very early stage of the sori a rudimentary trace, of, 

 hardly more substance than a film, of an involucre can be detected with 

 a lens. 



54. P. obliteratum, Swartz. — Rootstock subterranean, strong short 

 creeping; stipites sub-tufted, H-3 ft. 1. erect, grayish or dark coloured 

 with a few deciduous purplish scales at the base, subangular, hardly 

 channelled ; fronds erect, ovate oblong, 1^-lf ft. 1. f-lj ft. sub- 

 coriaceous, naked, or glabrescent beneath, dark green, pinnate, not 



