2o6 



Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



6. Polystichum ilicifolium. (Don.) Stipes densely tufted, 

 2-4 inches long, clothed with large scales throughout ; fronds linear 

 or lanceolate, not attenuated at the base, very coriaceous, pinnate ; 

 pinnae either small simple triangular or subrhomboidal, or much 

 larger and again pinnate, naked on both sides and shining, angles spinu- 

 lose-mucronate ; rachis fibrillose ; sori mostly in two rows, usually large; 

 indusium peltate ; veins immersed. Don. Prod. Fl. Hep. 3. Hook. 

 Syn. Fit. 251. Polystichum stimulans (Kze.), Bedd. F.B. I. t. 31. 



Himalayas, from Chumbra to Sikkim, 7,000-11,000 feet 

 elevation. 



Tne smaller forms with simple pinnae are very distinct, but the 

 larger ones with the pinnae again pinnated, quite graduate into 



P. aculeatum, var. rufo-barbatum till it 

 becomes quite indistinguishable from 

 forms of that fern, and is probably only 

 a variety of it. 



7. Polystichum Thomsoni. (Hook.) 

 Stipes tufted, 2-4 inches long, fibrillose ; 

 fronds pinnate linear up to 7 inches 

 long, subcoriaceous, not gradually atten- 

 uated at the base, both surfaces more or 

 less fibrillose ; pinnae cut down almost to 

 the rachis, bristly serrate, very unequal at 

 the base, the lower margin being cut away, 



polystichum iijciFOLiuM. the upper with the basal lobe much en- 

 {Don.) larged ; veins pinnate or forked in the 



segments ; sori terminal on a veinlet ; indusium peltate, bluntly 



crenated or subentire. Hook. Syn. Fil. p. 251, and 2nd Cent. Ferns, 



t. 25, in part only. Bedd. F. B. I. t. 126. 



Himalayas; from Balti to Sikkim, 7,000-13,000 feet elevation. 



Very near the smaller forms of Prescottianum, but the stipe is 

 fibrillose, not scaly. Hooker's plate is taken from specimens of 

 both species, and it is very probable that they are only varieties 

 of the same plant. 



N9I03. 



