Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 229 



creeping ; stipes scattered, 6-12 inches long, slender, slightly scaly 

 below ; fronds about 1 foot long, by 6-9 inches broad, with a pinnate 

 apex and 2-6 lateral pinna? on each side, which are i-if inch 

 broad, all simply pinnated or the lowest sometimes slightly compound 

 at the base, pinnules subrhomboidal with the lower side much cut 

 away -|-i inch long, cut down about a third or half-way to the costa into 

 rounded lobes which terminate with a long bristle, sometimes being 

 more or less serrated ; texture subcoriaceous ; rachis and both 

 surfaces naked ; veins pinnate in the lobes ; sori submarginal ; 

 indusium reniform or orbicular. Bedd. F. S. 1. t. 109. Aspidium 

 amabile, Bl. En. PL far. Fil. p. 165. Hook. Syn. Fil. 254. Aspid. 

 rhomboideum, Wall. Cat. 364. 



I keep this species in Lastrea as I have always found the 

 involucres reniform; they appear, however, to be sometimes orbicular, 

 so that the species has equal right to be a Polystichum. 



South India, on the Anamallays, Lower Pulneys, Travancore, 

 and Tinnevelly Hills, 3,000-4,000 feet elevation; Ceylon, central 

 provinces ; North India, Nepal, Jaintea, about 4,000 feet, rare. 



(Also in the Philippines and South China.) 



2. Lastrea aristata. (Sic. under Aspidium.) Rhizome long, 

 creeping, very scaly ; stipes scattered, about 1 foot long, more or 

 less fibrillose, as are the main and partial rachises ; fronds about 

 12-15 inches long, deltoid in outline, pinnate at the apex, below 

 which are 5-6 lateral pinna? on each side, which, except the lower 

 pair, are generally simply pinnate or with a tendency to be bipinnate 

 in their upper basal pinnules, lower pair bipinnate towards the base, 

 the lower basal pinnules being much the largest and quite pinnated, 

 pinnules subrhonboidal with the lower base cut away, more or less 

 lobed, the upper basal lob? being the deepest, lobes copiously 

 toothed, teeth aristate ; texture more or less coriaceous ; veins 

 pinnate in the lobes, the veinlets being simple or forked ; sori apical 

 on the veinlets and well within the margin ; indusium reniform or 

 orbicular. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 101 Aspidium aristatum, Sw. Syn. 

 Jul. 5.3. 



