38 
POLYPODIACEJ!— POLYPODIES. 
feet long, pinnate, bright green ; pinnee sessile, linear-lanceolate acuminate, four to six inches long, and about a 
quarter of an inch wide, cuneate at the base, crenulate at the margin, and indistinctly articulated with the rachis. 
Sori uniserial. Fronds lateral, adherent to a thick scaly cajspitose creeping rhizome. Introduced by Messrs. 
Rollisson in 1850. 
18. D. QUERCiFOLiA, /. Smith (Polypodium, Linnmus ; Phymatodes, PresT ). — An evergreen stove Fern, 
having an extensive geographical range through the tropics of the eastern hemisphere. Fronds of two kinds ; 
sterile — sessile, oblong-ovate, cordate at the base, sinuose or laoiniated, with the vascular structure rigid, and 
permanent : fertile — stipitate, pinnatifid, with linear acuminate undulated segments, having a thick margin, and 
articulated with the rachis. Sori round, obliquely and rather irregularly disposed throughout the whole under 
surface of the frond. The rhizomes are thick, scaly and creeping. There are various well-defined forms of this 
species distributed throughout the Eastern hemisphere. 
19. D. conoNANS, A/, and iZi (Polypodium, Wallich ; Phymatodes, PresZ). — A noble evergreen stove Fern, 
native of the East Indies. Fronds glabrous, rigid, sessile, 
rather erect, cordate-oblong, three to four feet long, lightish 
green, deeply pinnatifid ; segments oblong, undulated, 
articulated with the rachis, lower ones round at the apex, 
upper ones acuminate, margin thick and entire. Sori 
uniserial, between each two of the primary veins, and 
confined to the upper half of the frond, which is lateral, 
adherent to a thick decumbent fibrose slightly creeping 
rhizome. 
its 
1 
XIV. DICTYMIA, J. Smith. 
It 
vl. 
Sori oblong, compital, transversely uniserial, 
receptacle immersed. Venation uniform, reticulated, 
internal. Fronds simple, glabrous, coriaceous. 
Rhizome creeping. — Name derived from diktyon, a 
net; alluding to the netted venation. 
This genus is established on habit more than any 
technical characters. The two species which it com- 
prises are natives of New Holland and New Zealand. 
Their uniform reticulated venation distinguishes 
them from Drynaria, the areoles being all sterile. 
Fig. 15 represents the upper part of a frond of 
Fictymia attenuata (nat. size). 
1. D. ATTENUATA, J. Smith (PoLYPODIUM, Bj'own ; P. 
Buownianum, Sprengcl ; Dictyopteris, PmQ. — An orna- 
mental evergreen greenhouse Fern, from New Holland. 
Fronds simple, linear-acuminate, dark green, about a foot 
15- long, coriaceous, attenuated at the base. Sori oblong, 
uniserial, on the upper half of the frond. Fronds lateral, articulated on a creeping 
rhizome, nearly as thick as a goose-quill. 
XV. DRYMOGLOSSUM, Presl. 
Sori linear, continuous, marginal or intramarginal, produced on the 
transverse sides and junctions of the venules, forming a broad marginal or 
intramarginal soriferous band, which is pilose or squamiferous. Venation 
uniform, compoundly anastomosing, producing variously directed free 
veinlets. Fronds simple, elliptical, or lanceolate, coriaceous, from one to 
sixteen inches long. Rhizome creeping. — Name derived from drymos, a 
forest, and ghssa, a tongue ; alluding to the form of the fronds, and the Bio- 16- 
native habitat of the plants. 
Comparing the venation in this genus with what occurs in Drynaria and Sellignea, it is only by the 
position of the linear continuous sori that it is distinguishable. The essential characters are a com- 
