Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 12; 



GENUS XXXIIL— LOMARIA. (Willd.) 



(Loma, fringe or border ; relating to the indusium.) 



Sori linear continuous, parallel with the midrib and occupying 

 the whole, or nearly the whole, of the space between it and 

 the edge ; indusium membranous, formed of the revolute edge of the 

 frond. Fronds dimorphous, usually once or twice pinnatifid or 

 pinnate, rarely simple or bi-pinnate ; veins free ; ring of capsule 

 vertical. 



1. Lomaria Patersoni. (Sftreng.) Rhizome short-creeping; 

 stipes 2-3 inches long, wiry, erect, rather scaly below ; sterile frond 

 simple, about 1 foot long and 1 inch broad, narrowed at both ends, 

 or pinnatifid, 2 feet or more long, cut down nearly to the rachis into 

 6-12 segments on each side, which are often 6-9 inches long and 

 nearly 1 inch broad, and suddenly decurrent at the base ; texture 

 coriaceous ; fertile fronds simple and only -| inch broad, or pinnatifid 

 with numerous segments on each side, 6 inches long by -| inch broad ; 

 or the fronds are sometimes in part sterile, in part fertile ; veins 

 prominent in the young sterile fronds, inconspicuous in mature 

 fronds, forked, thickened at the apex close to the margin ; sori 

 covering the whole space between midrib and margin. Sflr. Sys. 

 Veg. iv. 62. Hook. Syn. Fil. 174. L. elongata (Blume), Bedd. F S. 

 I. t. 28, 2 8a. 



Nilgiris and Anamallays 5,000-8,000 feet elevation. Ceylon, 

 4,000 feet and upwards. Nilgiris examples have the fertile fronds 

 always pinnatifid as far as I have observed, and the sterile ones 

 generally so. From Ceylon I have examples with the sterile and 

 fertile both quite simple. 



(Also in the Philippines, Fiji, New Zealand, S. Australia, and 

 Tasmania.) 



