2. POLYPOBIACEJE. [17. Adiantum. 



and sometimes pubescent at base and apex, that of barren frond 

 3-4", of fertile up to 12". Barren frond triangular-ovate simple 

 entire with somewhat cordate or hastate base, 2-4" long and 1-2-5" 

 broad, basal lobes sometimes sub-2-lobed. Fertile frond 4-6" each 

 way, ivy-leaf shape or pinnatifid with the basal lobes furcate, the 

 basiscopic fork deflexed, other lateral lobes 2 only, lobes all linear or 

 linear-lanceolate entire coriaceous, costae black polished, other venation 

 obscure. 

 Balasore Hills, Blandford ! Fr. Feh. Conimoii in Biu-mah, 



17. ADIANTUM, L. Maidenhair. 



Usually tufted ferns with black and polished inarticulate stipes, 

 almost ahvays with one half-cylindric vascular bundle. Fronds 

 generally bright green and of delicate texture, simple to much pin- 

 nately compound with the final pinnules usually short broad and 

 rounded with flabellate venation. Veins mostly simple or forked 

 free. Sori marginal, globose to linear, at the ends of the veins, and 

 often spreading on to the parenchyma, separate or confluent and 

 covered by the recurved lobulate margin of the frond, on to which 

 they extend. 



Stipes naked. Pinnae with slender petiolules lialf-orbiciilar or some- 

 what oblong, acroscopic margin entire or with rounded lobules . 1. lunulatum. 



Stipes pubescent or tomentose. Pinnae subsessile half-lanceolate or 

 half-ovate, the acroscopic margin deeply lobed or laciniate . . 2. caudatmn. 

 The well-knowTi true Maidenhair fern (.4. capillus-reneris) has been found by me 



on wet rocks in moimtain ravines of the Central Provinces and might perhaps occur 



in our area. 



1. A. lunulatum, Burm. Dodhari, S. 



A tufted fern with slender fronds 6-15" long including the black 

 polished nearly glabrous wiry stipes, alternate patent petioled semi- 

 orbicular or elliptic -oblong simple pinnae with straight basiscopic 

 edge and curved lobulate acroscopic edge, • 5-1 • 3" long, acroscopic 

 base produced and rounded, nerves flabellate forked, sporangia on 

 the recurved lobules or sometimes continuous margin. Stalks of the 

 pinnae filiform • 1- • 4" long, and rhachis black and polished like the 

 stipes. Rhachis usually ends in a symmetrical flabellate pinna. 

 Only in one case have I seen it produced into a flagellum as in the 

 next species. 



A common fern in shady hill forest. Santal Parg., Gamble ! Throughout 

 Chota Nagpur ! Angul, Chattarjee ! No doubt tluoughout the hilly districts. 

 Fr. July-Jan. 



A decoction of the root is given in throat affections by the Santals, Campbell. 



2. A. caudatum, L. 



A small tufted fern with very fibrillose rhizome. Fronds linear or 

 linear-oblong 6-16" long, including the wiry polished deep-brown 

 stipes, up to the termination of the leafy portion, beyond which the 

 rhachis is frequently extended into a long more or less bare flagellum 

 of indefinite length often rooting at the tip. Pinnae all quite free 

 subsessile or shortly petioled, more or less rhomboid or irregularly 



1201 



