213 



brown narrow acuminate scales, the base fibrous ; fronds tufted, erect 

 or erecto-spreading, 3 - 6 in. 1. \\ li. w., coriaceous and rigid ; ratber 

 opaque, usually curved, linear, the apex blunt or acute, tapering at the 

 base to the short and hardly distinct stipites, when fertile much thick- 

 ened down to the centre and subtriquetrous, the margins even and fre- 

 quently folded together, glabrous, bright grass-green, midrib distinct 

 on the upper side, covered in the parenchyma ; veins oblique, immersed, 

 both simple and forked, not reaching the margins ; sori sunk in a deep 

 slit, down the back of the midrib, confined to the upper third half or 

 two thirds of the frond. 



Infrequent on trees on the ridges and peaks at 6,000-7,000 ft. alt. 

 The fibrous portion of the rootstock gradually elongates in a cylindri- 

 cal form to, occasionally, three or four inches in length. The slit-like 

 groove which contains the sorus is at first closed with connivent edges, 

 but as the fronds mature the sides of the groove open, showing the dark- 

 brown linear sorus embraced by them. The texture is particularly rigid. 

 Genus XXXIII. Vittaria, Smith. 



Sori linear, sunk in a marginal or intramarginal slit or groove, rarely 

 slightly impressed or superficial, continuous and parallel with the mar- 

 gins ; veins simple, oblique, prolonged and connected by a transverse 

 anastomosis, which forms the receptacle; fronds entire, linear or 

 ligulate. 



A small, almost strictly tropical, genus comprising about a score 

 of species, which are nearly equally divided between the Old and 

 New Worlds, reaching quite round the equatorial belt and possessing 

 considerable homogenity of form and habit, having mostly long pendent 

 fronds, linear or strap-shaped, which grow in tufts on the branches of 

 trees, or on rocks, in shady places or forests. 



Fronds £ inch wide, or less. — 1. V. intramarginalis. 



2. V. lineata. 



Fronds J-^ inch wide. — 3. V. stipitata. 



4. V. remota. 



1. V. intramarginalis, Baker. — Rootstock horizontal, very shortly 

 repent, densely clothed with hair-like reticulated serrated scales ; fronds 

 more or less tufted, few or many, the barren broader, rounded at the 

 top, linear-spathulate, fertile linear 2-6 in. 1. a line to J in. w., narrowed 

 and thickened toward the base, with no distinct unmargined petioles, 

 tapering and acute or acuminate at the apex, back rather rounded, with 

 a distinct narrow depression down the centre, dark green, under side 

 much paler, the margins thin ; sori sunk in continuous (or rarely, inter- 

 rupted) grooves, which fall short of both apex and base of the fronds ; 

 veins distant forming long narrow costular areolae. Journ. Bot. 1877, p. 266. 



On branches of trees overhanging Ginger River, St. Mary, and near 

 Bath, St. Thomas-in-the-East. A small plant, which much resembles 

 seedlings of the next species, from which it is readily distinguishable by 

 the distinct small barren fronds (not however present in full-grown 

 plants), less coriaceous and more pliant texture, pale under surface, 

 thin margins, and distinctly intramarginal open slits containing the 

 sori. There is no distinct midrib, the central vein being not stronger 

 than the lateral ones, with a line of narrow longitudinal areolae on each 

 side of it. The groves are medial, open and rounded, with thin edges 

 when the fronds are dried and the surface wrinkled longitudinally. 



