Sticherus farinosus (Kaulf.) Ching

Dicranopteris farinosa (Kaulf.) Underw. Bull. Torrey
Club 34: 254. 1907.
Mertensia farinosa Kaulf. Wes. Farrenkr. Vl . 1827. Mertensia subirisperma Fee, M^m. Foug. 11 : 122. 1866. Gleichenia farinosa Hook. Sp. Fil. 1 : 9, in part. 1844. Gleichenia subirisperma Krug, Bot. Jahrb. 24 : 78. 1897.
A small erect plant, 15-35 cm. high; rhizome 2-3 mm. in diameter, darkor purplishbrown, shining, freely branched, tuberculate from the detachment of roots, deciduously paleaceous, the scales bright-castaneous, linear-lanceolate, ciliate ; primary leaf-axis brownish, sparingly clothed with narrow yellowish -brown ciliate scales, glabrescent, bearing 2 or 3 pairs of mostly once-pseudodichotomous branches (the uppermost sometimes simple), the axis of the lowermost sometimes continued beyond the fork and bearing a second pair of simple pinnae; primary internodes 1-1.5 cm. long, pectinate upon the upper side, naked on the lower ; pinnae 7-14 cm. long, 2-3.5 cm. broad, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, incised nearly to the rachis ; segments very coriaceous, slightly oblique, very close, linear-oblong, 1-1.8 cm. long, about 2.5 mm. broad, acute, glabrous above, below decidedly granulose, the particles subclavate, yellowish -white, persistent ; rachises rather thickly clothed below with spreading linear-lanceolate deeply ciliate yellowish scales, the costae with a few dullyellowish filiform scales ; veins 20-25 pairs, once-forked near the costule, concealed, the Overlying tissue elevated, the granular particles here elongate-clavate; sori 3or 4-sporangiate, nearly medial, borne upon the anterior branch.
Type locality : Not known.
Distribution : Guadeloupe and Martinique ; not uncommon at altitudes of from 900 to 1450 meters. Ascribed also to Trinidad, probably with incorrectness.