2. POLYPODIACEM. 



DIVISION.— PTERIDOPHYTA.* 



Order FILICALES. Ferns.f 



FAM. 1. CYATHEACEiE. 



Mostly tree-ferns \vith a well-developed aerial trunk and very large 

 leaves. tSori round dorsal or apical on the fertile nerves with a sub- 

 spherical or converse very hairy receptacle. Sporangia numerous 

 dense, sessile or stalked, obovate with a broad vertical or suboblique 

 elastic complete annulus. Indusium inferior or absent {Alsojyhila). 



1. ALSOPHILA, R. Br. 



8ori dorsal, globose. Recejitacle elevated, villous. Indusium 0. 

 Frond pinnately decompound, veins never anastomosing, simple 

 forked or pinnate. 



1. A. glabra, Hook. 



A tree-fern 10-20 ft. high. Petiole asperous and rhachis almost 

 purple. Fronds 2-pinnate with pinnae 1-5-2 -5 ft. long, pinnules 

 3-6" by 5-9" wide, glabrous beneath, pinnatifid |-J-way down, veins 

 simple or few 2 -furcate. 



Chota Nagpiu-, Wood ! but an doubt from the old Commissioner's compound 

 in Ranchi, where it was planted. There is no wild Alsophila in Chota Nagpur, 

 though I have found both this and Ci/athea spimilosa in the deep ravines of the 

 Pachmari Hills (Central Provinces). 



FAM. 2. POLYPODIACE^. 



Perennial, very rarely annual, rarely tree-like ferns. Rhizome 

 sometimes creeping over trees and rocks. Leaves \\ith normal 

 epidermis and many-layered lacunose mesophyll. Sori rarely marginal, 

 though sometimes very close to margin, usually on the underside of 

 the leaves, dorsal or terminal on the fertile veins, at times also spread- 

 ing on to the parenchyma between the veins, naked, or covered by 

 the more or less modified leaf margin or by a special variously attached 

 and shaped indusium. Sporangia usually long-stalked, almost always 

 with an incomplete vertical annulus which is interrupted on one side 

 near the stalk, opening by a transverse fissure due to the elastic 

 straightening of the annulus. Spores globosely-tetrahedral or bi- 

 lateral. 



In the following key I have sliown some genera twice for convenienoo There 

 is much difference of opinion with regard to the position of these. Probably it 

 would be better to restore the tribe Grummiticlece, in which Gymnor/ramme, Hemio- 

 iiitis and Drymoglossum would be placed, whereas Diels shows them in the position 



* See Introduction. All the following families should logically have been 

 placed in the following order previous to the Dicotyledons. The Dicotyledons were 

 taken up first because they are of prior importance and in conformity with the usual 

 practice in Enghsh works on systematic botany. 



t The order of the venation in the ferns after primary rhachis, secondary 

 rhachides, etc., in compound fronds is costa, costule, veins, veinlets. The costule 

 being the midrib of a lobe is not always present and sometimes the general term 

 " vein " is sufficiently explicit. 



1183 



