Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 207 



Var. (3. gracilis. Fronds smaller, (3-5 inches long with 

 the stipe by §-f inch broad), margin of pinna? crenate, with a sudden 

 acumination (not bristly serrate), involucre reniform. Clarke, F. N. I. 

 t. 508.' Lastrea gracilis (Moore), Bedd. F. B. I. t. 198. Lastrea 

 sparsa, var. gracilis, Hook. Syn. Fil. 498. 



Sikkim, 11,500 feet elevation. Avery doubtful species, which 

 Mr. Clarke considers only a variety of Thomsoni, so I place it here 

 pending further material. Mr. Clarke says that the involucre is 

 polystichoid. 



8. Polystichum aculeatum. (Sw.) Stipes tufted, 6-12 

 inches long, scaly and fibrillose below or throughout ; fronds large, 

 ovate-lanceolate, bipinnate, coriaceous, not attenuated at the base 

 (or only slightly so in some forms) ; pinnae numerous close lanceolate, 

 pinnules oblong, unequal at the base, lower margin excised, upper 

 generally more or less auricled, margins bristly or spinulose ; texture 

 more or less coriaceous, under surface generally fibrillose ; veins 

 pinnate or forked in the segments of the pinnules ; sori towards the 

 apex or at the apex of the lower veinlets. Sw. Schrad. Joum. ii. 

 37. Hook. Syn. Fil. p. 252. 



Throughout the Indian region on the mountains. 



(Also throughout the whole world.) 



Var. |3 lobatum. {Eng. hot. t. 1563.) Fronds narrowly 

 lanceolate ; pinnae hardly pinnate, the lower secondary pinna sessile, 

 or decurrent. Clarke, F. N. I. p. 509. 



Throughout the Hima^yas. 



Var. y. RUFO-BARBATUM. ( Wall. Cat. 369.) Fronds bipinnate, 

 very coriaceous, usually reddish ; stipes densely clothed with large 

 red scales ; rachis with red fibrillee ; pinnules naked and fibrillose 

 beneath, in cutting like ilicifolium. P. aculeatum, Bedd. F. S. I. t. 

 121. Polyst. brachypterum, Kunze, No. 906. 



Nilgiris and Western mountains of South India ; Himalayas, 

 from Kashmir to Bhotan. 



Var. 0. angulakk. (1'rcsl. Navm. 173.) Lax and of thinner 



