Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 1S7 



iS. Diplazium latifolium. (Don.) Like polypodioides, 

 only the secondary pinnae are generally much less cut down, and 

 often much broader, they are sometimes almost entire, or with only 

 shallow serratures, when the fern has quite the appearance of 

 " sylvaticum," only bipinnate instead of simply pinnate ; other forms 

 have the secondary pinnae 2 inches (or even more) broad at the 

 base, cut down a third or half-way to the rachis ; segments alwa) s 

 more or less crenateor serrate; veinlets simple or forked, rather dis- 

 tant, their number depending on the size of the segments (never so 

 numerous as in asperum, except when the segments are double 

 the size of those of that plant) ; sori narrow, often occup) ing the 

 whole length of the veinlet, and reaching the margin ; indusium some- 

 times obso^te or early caducous. Don. Frod. Ft. Nep. 8. Hook. 

 Syn. Fil. 239. Dip. dilatatum, Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 258. Bedd. F. S. I. 

 162, a form running nearer to polypodioides. Dip. maximum, Hook. 

 Syn. Fil. 232, in part. 



Madras Presidency, in aU the Western forests. North 

 India, throughout the Himalayas and Khasya Hills. Ceylon ; 

 Malay Peninsula ; from very low altitudes up to 9,000 feet 

 elevation. 



(Also in Australia, China and the Philippines.) 



If we only included here species with very broad secondary 

 pinnce, not cut more than half-way down to the rachis, this 

 plant would be very distinct from " polypodioides," but I fear this is 

 not possible, and in all large herbaria, I find specimens that it is 

 very difficult to say which species they should be referred to. 

 Diplazium torrentium and succulentum of Clarke cannot be made 

 into distinct species, unless we also make many more, but they 

 belong to types which, though generally referred here, must, from the 

 deeper cutting of their secondary pinnae, go into " polypodioides," if 

 the two are to be kept distinct ; no figures and no description could 

 enable any one to distinguish some of these forms as species, the 

 only difference often being the extent of the cutting of the secondary 

 pinnae. D. decurrens unless a distinct species (which view its 

 venation I think supports), should rather be referred here than 



