XI. NIPHOBOLUS. 
•S3 
acuminate, decurrent at the base ; lateral, articulated on a short, scaly, creeping rhizome. Sori medial or termi- 
nal ; veins indistinct. 
4. C. Phyllitidis, J. Smith (Polypodium, Linnceiis; Campyloneurum, Fresl). — A rigid and rather erect- 
growing stove Fern, from the West Indies. Fronds simple, glabrous, from one to two and a-half foot long, 
rather narrow, slightly undulated, pale green, lanceolate-acuminate, coriaceous, decurrent at the base ; articulated 
on a scaly, short, creeping rhizome. Sori medial. 
5. 0. DECURRENs, /. iSwsVA (PoLYPODiuM, AacMi ; Campyloneurum, Pml). — An ornamental evergreen stove 
species, from Brazil. Fronds glabrous, nearly ovate, pinnate, from two to three feet high, rather erect, with 
lanceolate-acuminate, narrow, membranous, pale green pinnae, which are six to ten inches long, decurrent at the 
base, and running down the rachis ; they are articulated with a scaly, creeping rhizome. Sori terminal. 
XI. NIPHOBOLUS, Kaulfuss. 
Sori round, terminal, sometimes irregular and then usually confluent, protruding through dense 
stellate pubescence. Veins pinnate, internal, indistinct; venules parallel, transversely anastomosing, 
producing from their exterior side from two to five 
free or irregularly anastomosing veinlets, which are 
soriferous at their apices. Fronds simple, from one 
to one and a-half foot long, thick and fleshy, or 
coriaceous ; the fertile generally contracted. Rhizome 
creeping. — Name derived from nijjhoholos, covered 
with snow ; the fronds being covered with a white 
starry pubescence. 
This genus has the most obvious characters of 
any in this section of Fohjpodiece ; for, in the absence 
of fructification, it is at once known by its stellate 
jiubescence and simple fronds. The venation being 
inteimal and obscure, cannot be well seen, unless the 
cellular tissue of the frond is destroyed ; it is one of 
the most exquisitely beautiful of all the forms of 
venation developed throughout the whole family of 
Ferns. Fig. 12 represents a fertile and a sterile 
frond of Niphoholus Lingua (nat. size). 
1. N. NUMMULARIFOLIUS, /. Smith (AcROSTICHUM, 
Swartz; Gymnopteris, Presl). — A very elegant little ever- 
green stove species, native of the East Indies and the 
Philippine Islands. Sterile fronds subrotund, half an inch 
in diameter, light green, very fleshy. Fertile fronds 
linear, two inches long, decurrent at the base. Both the 
sterile and fertile are articulated on a scaly Aliform creeping 
rhizome. Sori round, subsequently confluent, covering 
the whole under surface ; veins and costa immersed in the 
substance of the frond. 
2. N. RUPESTRis, Sprengel (Polypodium, Forster , 
Craspedarta, Linlc; N. serpens, Fncllicher). — A dwarf 
evergreen greenhouse species, from New Plolland. Sterile 
fronds roundish or oblong-ovate, one to two inches long, 
decurrent at the base. Fertile fronds linear, throe to four 
inches long, obtuse at the apex, and decurrent at the base. 
Both kinds are dull green, and articulated on a small scaly 
creeping rhizome, about the thickness of a crow’s quill. 
Sori round, confined to the upper half of tho frond ; veins 
and costa immersed. , 
3. N. PERTUSus, Sprengel (Polypodium, Roxburgh ; 
Grasped aria. Link). — A very fleshy evergreen stove Fern, 
Sterile fronds ohlong-ovate, obtuse, decurrent at the base, three to four inches long. Fertile fronds linear, four 
