Ferns of British India and Ceylon, 199 



TRIBE IX.— ASPIDIEiE. 



Sori dorsal, subglobose, rarely elliptical ; indusium superior, 

 similar in shape to the sorus, fixed either by the centre or a sinus. 



GENUS XLVII.--DIDYMOCHLiENA. {JDesv) 



{Didymos, double; c/ilcena, a cloak ; — the double indusium.) 



Sori elliptical, terminal on a veinler, but distinctly intramarginal; 

 indusium elliptical, marginate at the base, attached longitudinally to the 

 linear receptacle, free all round the edge; veins subflabellate, free, their 

 apices clavate ; fronds bipinnate, pinnules articulate with the rachis. 



r. Didymochuena lunulata. (Desv.) Caudex erect, sub- 

 arborescent ; fronds densely tufted, 4-6 feet long, bipinnate ; pinnules 

 f— 1 inch broad, dimidiate, subquadrangular, entire or slightly sinuated; 

 texture subcoriaceous ; veinlets forked or pinnate, their apices 

 marked with white dots; sori 2-6 to a pinnule. Desv. in Mem. 

 Soc. Li?in. vi. p. 282. Hook. Syn. Fil.p. 248. Bedd. F. B.I. t. 15. 



Birma and the Malay Peninsula. 



(Also in Tropical America ; East African Islands ; Malay 

 Islands ; Fiji.) 



GENUS XLVIIL— MESOCHL^ENA. {R. Br) 



(Mesos, middle ; chlcena, cloak, attachment of the indusium.) 



Sori and indusium of Didymochlasna, but habit and venation of 

 Nephrodium, i.e., the lower pair of veinlets anastomose, the others 

 free, parallel ; fronds bipinnatifid. 



1. MesochljENA polycarpa. (Bl. under Aspidiwn.) Caudex 

 erect; stipes tufted, short; fronds 2-3 feet long, 12-18 inches 

 broad, pinnate ; pinnae close, very numerous, spreading, dwindling 

 down below to mere auricles, the largest 6-9 inches long, \ inch 

 broad, cut down half-way or more to the rachis into linear-oblong 

 lobes ; rachis and lower surface villose ; veins very close, pinnated, 



