Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 67 



nearly or quite to the rachis into blunt slightly crenated oblong lobes, 

 rachis and both surfaces slightly hairy, the upper bright green, shining ; 

 texture subcoriaceous ; sori small submarginal, 2-12 to a segment. 

 Hook. Syn. Fil. p 99. Microlepia proxima (Thw.), Bedd. F. S. I. t. 254. 

 Ceylon, Rangbodde, 3,500 feet elevation. 



8. Microlepia strigosa. (Swartz.) Fronds tall, lanceolate, bi- 

 pinnate ; stipes elongated ; rachis and veins pubescent-hispid, primary 

 pinnae petiolate, lanceolate acuminate, secondary (or pinnules) mostly 

 petiolate, subdimidiate-ovate, obtuse pinnatifid, chiefly on the upper 

 edge, lower lobes obovate deep, the rest short, all of them angulate- 

 dentate, veins pinnated, furnished with a few long scattered hairs both 

 above and beneath (the remaining surface of the frond beneath being 

 sometimes furnished with numerous small hairs, or sometimes gla- 

 brous as is the upper surface) ; involucres hairy, small, half cup-shaped. 

 Hook. Syn. Fil. p. 98. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 255. 



Tinnevelly and Travancore Mountains, South India ; Ceylon ; 

 Himalayas ; and Malay Peninsula. 



(Also in Japan, South China, Sandwich and Fiji Islands.) 



Mr. Clarke considers this a variety, or rather only a young state 

 of speluncae, as he states it develops into this more compound 

 form ; as far as the South Indian and Ceylon forms are concerned, 

 this is never more than bipinnate, whereas speluncce is 3-4 pin- 

 nate ; it has been for years in cultivation in ferneries, at Ootaca- 

 mund, and is quite constant. 



9. Microlepia speluncve. {Linn) Rhizome creeping; stipes 

 strong, 1-1? foot long ; fronds up to 6 feet long, rarely more, and 

 2 feet broad, ovate to deltoid, 3-4-pinnatifid, more or less 

 hairy, strigose or villous, or with few or many long glistening scale- 

 like flaccid hairs, rarely sub-glabrous ; texture membranaceous, or 

 flaccid, pinnules from oblong or ovate to linear-lanceolate, ultimate 

 segments entire or subentire and rhomboid, or irregularly inciso- 

 obate or pinnatifid ; sori large 1-5 to the entire segments, more 

 copious on the lobed segments; involucre half cup-shaped, hispid or 

 rarely glabrous; veins more or less prominent beneath. Polypodium 

 »pe1 mcae, Lin. Sp. PI. 1555. 



