THE ALPINE POLYPODY. 17 
Caudex short, erect or decumbent, consisting of the persistent 
crowded bases of the fronds attached around a central axis, the 
whole forming a stout roundish mass, frequently tufted, scaly above. 
Scales numerous, broadly or narrowly ovato-lanceolate, of a pale- 
brown colour. Fibres stout, branched, dark-coloured. 
Vernation circinate. 
Stipes short, from about one-sixth to one-fourth of the entire 
length of the frond, stoutish, swollen near the base, clothed sparingly 
. with ovate-lanceolate pale-brown scales; terminal and adherent to 
the caudex. Rachis stout, rounded behind, channelled in front; 
the rachis of the pinne furnished with a very narrow leafy wing on 
both sides, connecting the pinnules. 
Frond from one to three feet and upwards in height, erect or 
ascending, herbaceous, dark dull green, lanceolate or oblong-lanceo- 
late, the base narrowed in about the same degree as the point; l 
bipinnate or subtripinnate. In fronds, of which the leafy portion 
measures about twenty inches in length, the greatest breadth is 
about six and a half inches. Pinnæ broadly linear or lanceolate 
from a broad base, tapering to a narrow point, numerous, crowded 
above, more distant below, spreading or somewhat ascending. 
Pinnules ovate-oblong, sometimes ovato-lanceolate, or oblong-ovate, 
acute, with a narrow attachment at the base, but connected by a 
narrow membranous wing which borders the rachis; they are deeply 
pinnatifid, and in the most vigorous fronds so much so, and the 
segments so far distant from each other, as to appear again pinnate. 
“Segments oblong obtuse, sharply serrate, especially at the apex and. 
on the anterior margin. The subtripinnate fronds have the seg- 
ments doubly toothed. 
Venation of the pinnules consisting of a slightly flexuose midvein 
from which branch a series of alternate pinnate veins. Veins of the 
segments flexuose, with simple alternate venules, one of which is 
directed to the point of each marginal tooth ; the lowest anterior 
venule, which is directed towards the lowest anterior tooth, is usually 
soriferous, and when this only is so, the sori form a series on each 
side the midvein, at a short distance from it, and just above the 
sinus of the segments on their anterior margin; sometimes, however, 
some of the other venules are also fertile, and the sori are then 

