48 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



4. Humata pedata. {Smith.) Rhizome creeping, scaly ; stipe 

 2-4 inches long, fronds 2-8 long, by 1I-4 inches broad, deltoid 

 in outline, cut down nearly or quite to the rachis, the lower pair of 

 segments or pinnules larger than the others, and more compound, 

 deeply pinnatifid, with the segments crenated, or more or less pin- 

 natifid ; sori in rows on the teeth on both sides of the lobes, Smith, 

 Tentam Gen. Fil. 15. Hook. Syn. Fil. p. 89. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 12. 

 H. alpina, Blume, is a smaller, more finely cut variety, which is 

 found in the Himalayas as well as Mergui. H. vestita (Bl.), Bedd. 

 F. S. I. t. 253, has a longer stipe, is more lanceolate in shape, and 

 more finely cut, but is said to run into typical "pedata." 



The typical form is found on the western slopes of the Nilgiris, 

 and on the Travancore Ghats, at 3,000-4,000 feet elevation ; Sikkim, 

 Bhotan, Khasya, Jaintea, 4,000 feet ; Ceylon ; and the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



(Also in the Malay Islands, North Australia, South China, in 

 Japan, and the Mascareen Islands.) 



The variety alpina has been received from the north west 

 Himalayas (Dyas), and Mergui, and also inhabits Java, Azores, and 

 the Polynesian Islands. 



The variety vestita is from Ceylon, and also occurs in Java. 



GENUS XV.— LEUCOSTEGIA. (Brest.) 



(From leucos, white ; stegos, a cover.) 



Sori intra- or sub-marginal, indusium as in Humata, but smaller, 

 narrower and thinner ; fronds articulated upon the rhizome (except 

 in nodosa), generally membranaceous and flaccid, generally 3-4- 

 pinnatifid or pinnate, rarely only bipinnatifid ; veins forked, venules 

 free ; rhizome long, creeping, growing generally on trees and rocks. 



1. Leucostegia hymenophylla (Parish MS.) Caudex 

 creeping, furnished with numerous long wiry roots, stipe slender, 

 3-4 inches long; fronds subglabrous, membranaceous, very flaccid 

 and transparent, ovate, or deltoid-ovate pinnate ; lower pinnae deeply 

 pinnatifid with the lower basal segments much the largest, and again 



