220 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



phous, the fertile much contracted, pinnatifid down to a broadly 

 winged rachis into 3-4 pair of pinnae or lobes on each side, 6-12 

 inches long, 1-2 \ inches broad, lowest pair often bifurcate, margins 

 quite entire in the sterile, more or less crenated in the fertile, sub- 

 coriaceous, glabrous on both sides ; main veins distinct nearly to 

 the margin, with cross veins forming series of large areoles in which 

 are included netted veinlets and simple or forked free veinlets; sori 

 large, generally in two pretty regular series between the main veinlets, 

 nearly always at the apex of the free veinlets, often continued all 

 down the wing of the stipes ; indusium generally more or less reni- 

 form, sometimes elongated and irregular. Presl. Pel. Hanck, 28. 

 Hook. Syn. Fil. 299. Sagenia pteropus, Bedd. F. S. I. t. 82. 



Eastern Bengal at the foot of the hills, x\ssam, Cachar, Chitta- 

 gong ; South India in the Bolampatty Hills between Coimbatore and 

 Palghat, 2,000 feet elevation ; Tinnevelly and Travancore Hills, 

 2,000-2,500 feet; Ceylon; Malay Peninsula. In habit very like 

 vastum, but fertile fronds contracted, and sori differently situated. 



(Also in the Malay Islands, South China, Polynesia.) 



Var ft minor. (Bedd.) Fronds very small (1 foot long only), 

 sterile 3-5 partite rather thin pinnatifid, fertile deeply pinnatifid, 

 very much contracted, the lobes or pinnae being very narrow. 

 Sagenia pteropus-minor, Bedd. F. S. J. t. 245. 



Ceylon only, in the Doombera district at no great elevation. 



n. Aspidium cicuTARiuM. (Sw.) Stipes tufied, 1 foot or 

 more long, with many scales close to the base ; fronds very variable 

 in size, from 8 inches up to several feet, deltoid in outline, apex 

 pinnatifid, below which are 1-4 pair of pinna?, which are either only 

 lobed or completely pinnated with the secondary pinnae deeply pin- 

 natifid, or even again pinnated {i.e. tripinnate), with the tertiary 

 pinnae deeply pinnatifid (quadripinnatifid), the lowest pair of pinnae 

 are always deeply pinnatifid or pinnate on the lower margin, but the 

 other pairs are generally much less so and often only lobed ^-\ down, 

 texture thin, surfaces glabrous in some vaiieties, but in others hairy 

 on the upper surface and puberulous on the costas and costules 



