199 



(not shown in Pi's, fig.) but casually both forms are fertile. In drying 

 it turns nearly black. The conform barren and fertile fronds of a led 

 Willdenow, Grisebach and others to regard it as a distinct species. 



78. P. Stcurtzii, Baker. — Rootstock slender, wide-creeping, branched, 

 clothed with fine linear acuminate fulvous scales, which in time be- 

 come dark ; fronds scattered, chartaceous or membrano-chartaceous, 

 pellucid, naked, or sometimes glandulose beneath, usually pale green, 

 stipitate, or more distinctly petiolate, 3-6 in. 1 J - \ in. w., tapering both 

 ways, the apex acuminate or bluntish, the base decurrent on the slender 

 etipites, the margins subentire or sinuate, rarely deeply lobate ; veins 

 fine, but evident, areolae 1-3 serial, fertile meshes enlarged, usually 

 central, with included free or united branches, marginal branches also 

 free or united ; sori-medial, slightly depressed, terminal on a single or 

 two or three united veinlets. PI. Fil. t. 122, P. serpens, Swartz. 



Common in the limestone districts up to 2,000 ft. altitude on rocks 

 and trees; variable in size, texture, venation, and the more or less uneven 

 margins. In some cases the fronds are irregularly lobate. The vena- 

 tion is equally variable, and in instances resembles that of Goniophlebium. 

 the costal series of narrow barren areolae being absent. The rootstock too 

 is very distinct and somewhat peculiar. It is shrivelled and striated 

 longitudinally and the branches are usually short or rudimentary. Mixed 

 with the scales at intervals are small acuminate dark spur-like appen- 

 dages. P. runcinatum, Desv. is represented in Plumier's figure quoted 

 above. The name serpens was first used by Forster for an Australian 

 species. Swartz unwittingly used the term later for this Jamaica plant. 

 Heward not knowing this, and taking the same plant for a new species 

 described it in the Magazine of Natural History, Sept., 1838, naming it 

 P. exigunm. Subsequently Grisebach unaware of this, used the same 

 designation for another Jamaica Polypod., after which Baker discover- 

 ing Swartz's name preoccupied by Forster's plant called it P. Swartzii. 

 Heward's name has therefore priority, but its adoption would involve 

 renaming Grisebach's plant, a plant for which the term is entirely appro- 

 priate, and, as Heward's authority has hardly been known, I think the 

 matter had better be left as it is. 



79. P. lanceolatum, Linn. — Rootstock slender, free-creeping, clothed 

 with narrow pale-margined scales; stipites scattered, 2-4 in. 1., slender, 

 dark-brown, naked or with a few deciduous peltate scales, margined 

 above ; fronds very coriaceous and stiff, more or less freely coated with 

 minute dark-centred peltate fimbriate-edged appressed scales, beneath 

 which they are a dark brownish-green, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 

 4-12 in. 1. ^-1J in. b., tapering freelj at both ends, margins entire or 

 sinuate, rachis dark coloured beneath ; veins immersed copiously reti- 

 culated, forming large costal areola?, with included and exterior smaller 

 meshes ; sori large, 2-3 li. b., medial, oval or oblong, rarely round, de- 

 pressed, contained in the large areolae ; sporangia mixed with short 

 dense scales, which form permanent pads. P. lepidotum, Willd. P. 

 ensifolia. Hook. Fl. Exot. t. 62. 



a var. Elisabethce, Jenm. — Fronds uniformly lobed on both sides. 



Common from 2,500-6,000 ft. alt. in exposed situations on rocks, 

 tanks and trees. A very distinct plant. In narrow fronds the large 

 sori occupy the whole space between the midrib and margins. In the 

 irregularly lobed states there is often a partial second row, and the 



