162 
POLYPODIUM PERTUSUM. 
Narrow-leaved Starry Polypody. 
CRYPTOGAMIA FILICES—Nat. Ord. FILICES. 
Gen. Char. — Sort subrotundi, sparsi. Indusia nulla. 
Voly^odimn pertusum ; frondibus simplicibus caniosis enervibus utrin- 
que squamulis stellatis sparsis, sterilibus oblongo-lanceolatis basi at- 
tenuatis, fertilibus lineari-lanceolatis dimidio superiore fructificante 
angustiore, soris ovalibus lana densissima e squamulis steUatis im- 
raersa. 
P. pertusum, Roxburgh's MSS. with a figure. 
Caudex minute, scaly, creeping, throwing out several branched and 
downy roots. Fronds erect, of a thick and fleshy substance, nerve- 
less, dark green above, and channeUed in the centre, with a prominent 
midrib beneath, thickened at the margin on both sides, beset with ex- 
ceedingly minute, scattered, beautifully stellated scales, which are invi- 
sible to the naked eye, at the base gradually tapering into glabrotis, 
grooved stipes, about an inch long: sterile fronds 2-4 inches in length, 
oblong-lanceolate, ohtnse ^ fertile ones 6 inches long, linear-lanceolate. ' 
Fructification produced at the back of the upper half of the frond, imbedded 
in, and at first wholly concealed by, a dense whitish woolly mass, which 
covers the whole back of the frond as far as the fructification extends, 
and is composed of an infinite number of the same kind of stellated 
scales as are scattered so sparingly over the rest of the frond. Sari oval, 
consisting of about 8-12 spherical, pedicellated annulated capsules. 
Introduced from China by the Horticultural Society of 
London, and presented by that truly liberal institution to the 
Botanic Garden of Liverpool, where it has flourished, and where 
it bore its singular fructification in the month of November. 
Stellated scales are found upon not a few of the simple 
fronded Polypodia: in this individual, however, there is a 
dense mass of them upon that portion of the frond which pro- 
duces the fructification ; the clusters of capsules at first lie 
VOL. II. 
