142 



Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



as varieties, as there are intermediate forms from the Himalayas ; they 

 both stain the paper they are dried in, a bright pink colour. 



2. Asplenium Griffithianum. (Hook.) Stipes tufted, erect 

 short; fronds lanceolate, 4-12 inches long, |— 1 inch broad, the 

 point acuminate, narrowing below very gradually ; the margin 

 undulate, crenate; texture subcoriaceous ; veins distant, obscure, 

 usually once forked; sori reaching from the midrib two-thirds of 

 the way to the margin. Hook. Syn. Fil. 193. Bedd. F.B. I. t. 58. 



Sikkim, below Darjeeling, 4,000 

 feet elevation, scarce ; Mishmee ; 

 Khasya, 4,000-5,000 feet elevation, 

 Mergui and Tavoy. 



There is also, in the Kew Herbarium, 

 a fern from Penang, which quite agrees 

 with this, except that it has a slender 

 stipe 6-9 inches long. 



* * Fronds lobed or pinnatifid. 



3. Asplenium altf.rnans. ( Wall.) 

 Caudex short, descending, copiously 

 rooting, squamose with subulate scales 

 as is the very short (rarely an inch 

 long) stipe, and base of the costa 

 beneath ; fronds casspitose, about a 

 span long, chartaceous, very opaque 

 pale rusty green beneath, glabrous, 

 lanceolate, scarcely acuminate attenuated below, deeply and regularly 

 pinnatifid throughout ; lobes ovate or triangular-oblong with wide 

 sinuses, obtuse, quite entire ; veins subflabellate, all free ; sori 

 copious on all the lobes in two rows, linear-oblong erect- 

 patent, the superior basal one parallel with the costa. Wall. 

 Cat. 221. Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 92. Syn. Fil. p. 194. Bedd. 

 F.B.I.t 59. 



N. VV. Himalayas, very common 3,000-9,000 feet elevation, 



N°7I 



ASPLENIUM ENSIFORME. 



(Wallich.) 



