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rib, rise from the back, or outer margin, of the narrow basal (or
paracostal) areoles. Outside of the fruit-containing areoles are
other smaller areoles, usually in the shape of narrow hexagons,
and destitute of included veinlets. The group of ferns to which
this plant belongs was first clearly distinguished by the learned
R o b e r t B r o w n , under the name of Phlebodium, probably in
“ Plantse Javanicas Rariores,” — a work to which, unfortunately, I
have not access. But his remarks upon it are quoted in Hooker’s
“ Genera Plantarum.” Phlebodium has been accepted as a genus
by John Smith and Moore, but was reduced — very properly, as
I think — to a section of Polypodium by Hooker. With Mct-
tcnius, the name has been applied to a much larger assemblage
of Polypodia; but, as used by Plooker and Baker, it includes
only three species, — P. nigripes (Hooker) from Venezuela, P .
aureum, and P. decumanum. With P. aureum arc associated as
varieties P. areolatum (H. B. K.) and P. pidvinahtm (Link).
These vary somewhat from the character of P. aureum as given
above, but are probably not specifically distinct, although so
considered by many authors of high reputation. They occur
in Mexico, the West Indies, and South America. The first
variety, areolatum, which includes P. sporadocarpum (Willd.),
is thus defined by Plooker and Baker: "F ro n d smaller, more
coriaceous, very glaucous, the lobes closer, the sori uniserial, and
barren areoles with no free veinlets.” The latter, pulvinatum:
“ Like areolatum in sori and venation, but the frond hardly at
all glaucous, and the terminal lobe very small.”
The Golden Polypody takes its name undoubtedly from the
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luxuriant golden-brown chaff of the rhizoma. It was discovered
long ago in the West Indies, and received from ante-Linnæan
botanists a variety of names. Plumier figured it at Plate 76 of
his magnificent folio, “ Traité des Fougères de l'Amérique” (published
in 1705)’ named it Polypodiutn majus aureum. Pie
says, “ Ce Polipode a la racine grosse environ d’un pouce, et
longue bien souvent d’un pied, ronde, noüeuse, rameuse, charnue,
verdastre en dedans, d'un goiist astringent, et toute couverte de
petites écailles dorées.” It forms one of the finest ornaments
of the ferneries, in which it is frequently cultivated.
The genus Polypodium — even when limited, as by Mettenius,
to the ferns having round or roundish naked sori, composed of
sporangia with an incomplete vertical ring, the stalks of the fronds
articulated to the rhizoma — contains several hundred species.
Mettenius gives two hundred and sixty; and, in the second edition
of “ Species Filicum,” Mr. Baker brings up the number to three
hundred and forty. The great differences in the size and outlines
of the frond, in the venation, in the texture, and in the surface,—
whether smooth, hairy, tomentose, or scaly, — and in the presence
or absence of peltate scales among the sporangia, have induced
writers on the subject, especially Link, J. Smith, Presl, Fée, and
Moore, to propose dividing the genus into many genera, founded
on the characters just referred to. But Mettenius has satisfactorily
shown that the intermediate forms are so many and so perplexing,
that the whole is best regarded as forming but one
natural genus ; and in this view he has been followed by Sir
W. J . Hooker and Mr. Baker, who, however, retain in Polypo-
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