The Anatomy of Nephrolepis volubilis J.Sm. 253 
Phlobaphene is commonly found in ferns, impregnating the 
walls of ground tissue cells just outside the endodermis, and is well- 
known for its great resistance to acids. 1 Of a piece of the stolon 
about half a centimetre long kept in concentrated chromic acid for 
some days, all parts had been destroyed except the phlobaphene in 
the inner cortical layers, which was left intact as a hlack hollow 
cylinder. This method may perhaps be of use in following the 
intricate vascular structure of certain other ferns, in which the 
phlobaphene-containing layers closely invest the vascular strands. 
Text-fig. 2. N. volubilis. Natural size photograph showing three lateral 
plants. The cut ends of the primary stolon show the single axial strand. 
Scabs cover the secondary stolons and the lateral plants. 
III. Description of Nephrolepis VOLUBILIS J.Sm. 
(a.) External Features and Distribution. This species, which 
ranges in distribution from Northern India, through the Malayan 
Region to New Guinea, 2 isdistinguished chiefly by its peculiar habit. 
The main axis gives rise laterally to stolons of unusual length which, 
instead of creeping about on the substratum as in the other species 
of the genus, scale forest trees up to a height of 16 metres and thus 
raise the young plants, produced on them at intervals, far above the 
level of the ground vegetation of which the mother-plant forms a 
1 Walter, Bibliotheca botanica, iv, p. 15, 1890. 
2 Christ, l.c. 
