159 



to occur in India and seems to have been 

 lumped together with Nephrolepis cordifolia. 

 A specimen wrongly named Nephrolepis ramosa 

 (Beauv.) in the Bombay Natural History 

 Society's Herbarium is this fern. Of it Mr. 

 Macpherson says : ' It is an annual dying 

 down shortly after the rains.' The book has 

 the following note on a specimen of this fern 

 collected by Mr. Woodrow in the caves at 

 Panchgani. ' I can make nothing of this but 

 Nephrolepis cordifolia, but the pinnae are more 

 membrahaceous in texture than the fern usually 

 is. The fact of its growing in a cave may 

 account for this.' 



We consider it to be distinct from N. 

 cordifolia. It is an annual, whereas N. 

 cordifolia is perennial, it is a more delicate fern 

 than N. cordifolia and has membranaceous 

 involucres. The specimens we have examined 

 answer well the description and figure of N. 

 undulata given in Lowes' Ferns, British and 

 Exotic, vol. vii, pp. 51 and 52. Accordingly 

 we have placed them in this species. 



Distribution : Bombay Presidency North 

 Kanara, Karwar, Anshi Ghat at no elevation, 

 Sumkund ; Lonavla on trees ; Panchgani in 

 caves. West Africa ; Sierra Leone. 



