114 
POLYPODIUM PLANTAGINEUM. 
Plantain-leaved Polypodium. 
CRYPTOGAMIA FILICES.— Nat. Oed. FILICES. 
Gen. Char — Sori subrotundi, sparsi, Indusia nulla. 
Polypodium plantagineum ; frondibus late lanceolato-oblongis glabris 
obtusiusculis apice emarginatis proliferis, soris biserialibus. 
Stipite rachique subtus paleacis. 
Lingua cervina latifolia, pedunculis squamosis. Plum. Fil. t. 128. 
/3, Polypodium plantagineum, Jacq. Coll. v. ii. p. 104. t. 3. f. 1. — Swartz, 
Fil. p. 29.--W1LLD. Sp. PI, V. 5. p. 161. 
Caudex, according to Plumier, creeping, knotty, but destitute of chafF-like 
scales, and emitting from below several branching radicles. Stipes from 
4 to 6 or 8 inches in length, brown, with numerous chaff-like scales. 
Frond from 6 inches to a foot long, broadly lanceolato- oblong, sometimes 
approaching to obovato-oblong, the margin waved, entire, the base acute 
or slightly attenuated, the apex subacuminated, obtuse, and emarginate, 
in some instances bearing a scaly bulb or gemma, or throwing out a new 
plant, which taking root soon attains as great a size as the parent indivi- 
dual. Midrib chaffy on the underside (which, as well as the stipes in 
the var. /8, is destitute of scales) ; lateral veins rather distant, parallel, 
nearly horizontal, waved ; from these, almost at right angles, spring in a 
curved direction, other lesser veins or veinlets, which again branch out 
and anastomose so minutely as scarcely to be visible to the naked eye. 
Texture of the frond thin, and almost membranaceous. 
Between these curved second veinlets are placed the spots cf fructtficatum, 
two or four between each pair, and in two rows at pretty equal distances 
from and between each pair of primary veins. Clusters small, composed 
of several pedicellated capsules. 
A native of Martinique, according to Jacquin and Plu- 
MiER ; for there is no difference between the plants mentioned 
by the two authors, except that the one has the stipes and un- 
der side of the midrib chaffy, and the other has not, 
VOL. II. 
