Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 225 



3. Pleocnemia membranacea. {Hook, under Aspidium.) 

 Stipes tufted up to 9 inches long, straw-coloured, basal scales linear ; 

 fronds up to about 18 inches long, deltoid, bi-tripinnate, pinnatifid 

 at the apex, the lowest pair of pinnae much the largest, long stalked, 

 with the lowest secondary pinnae stalked and again quite pinnate at 

 the base, the pinnules being stalked and deeply pinnatifid, ultimate 

 segments crenulate, upper pinnae gradually less compound ; texture 

 thin, membranaceous, upper surface somewhat hairy towards the 

 margins ; costas and veins rusty or puberulous, under surface 

 slightly puberulous ; lower veins forming long costal arches, the 

 rest free ; sori at the apex of free veins ; indusium both orbicular 

 and reniform. Hock. Syn. Fil. p. 259. Sagenia gigantea, var. 

 minor, Bedd. F. S. I. t. 243, a small frond less compound than 

 described above. Tine. En. PL Z*y. p. 390. (C. P. 1358.) 



Ceylon ; in the Doombera district at no great elevation. Mr. 

 Thwaites had doubts whether this was a variety of the last, or a 

 distinct species ; the venation is quite that of the last species, but rather 

 less compound, owing to the fronds being more cut and narrower ; 

 it is quite that of Pleocnemia, and I find some of the involucres 

 reniform ; it is of thinner texture, much more cut and less glabrous 

 than the last, and, I think, may safely be considered a distinct 

 species. 



(Also in Java, Philippines, China, and Formosa.) 



4. Pleocnemia membranifolia. (Presl.) Stipes tufted, fur- 

 nished with black linear subulate scales more copious towards the 

 base, up to about 1 foot long ; fronds seldom more than 1 foot long, 

 from deltoid to ovate, pinnate with a pinnatifid apex, lateral pinnae 

 few pairs opposite or suboppositc, 2-4 inches long, f-ii broad, 

 more or less deeply pinnatifid, the segments rounded nearly entire, 

 lowest pair of pinnae much larger, deltoid, pinnatifid or almost 

 pinnate, the lower basal segments being elongated and pinnatifid; 

 main rachis and both surfaces more or less softly hairy, with multi- 

 celullar hairs ; texture softly herbaceous ; fertile fronds uniform 

 with the sterile, or more or less contracted, often very much so, 

 lower veins in the sterile and broad fertile fronds anastomosing and 



16 



