Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 237 



South India, very common in all the Western forests ; and in 

 Ceylon (exactly corresponding with Wallich's two type sheets). 

 Specimens sent from both these localities were partly referred 

 by Hooker to his calcarata and partly to falciloba, but he doubted 

 whether the two species were really distinct. Also in Khasya, the 

 Himalayas ; Birma. 



Asp. calcaratum, var./3. Thw. En. 391, L. calcarata, Bedd. 

 F. S. 1. t. 246, is an abnormal form, with small narrow pinnae taper- 

 ing at both ends and less pinnatifid, except sometimes quite at the 

 base, where the segments are almost free and distant ; but, as Thwaites 

 says, it passes into the type. A form from Birma also has very narrow 

 pinnae and is densely hairy. 



Var. (3 sericea. (J. Scott, MS.) Pinna; short oblong, 1-2 inches 

 long by \— I inch broad, quite obtuse at the apex, or ending in a 

 short sudden point (never caudate), involucre glabrous, otherwise as 

 in the type. L. sericea, Bedd. F. B. I. t. 308. This is, perhaps, 

 scarcely distinct as a variety from the type, but its geographical limits 

 are curious, in North India it has only been found in Chittagong, 

 elevation 200 feet, and in South India only on the Jeypore Hills 

 west of Vizagapatam, elevation 2,000 feet. I have had it for several 

 years in cultivation and it quite kept its character. 



Var. 7 falciloba. {Clarke.) Stipes angled and furnished 

 with auricles below the frond ; pinnae more numerous and narrower, 

 4 inches long by J inch broad ; texture subcoriaceous (more like 

 ochthodes) ; indusium glabrous. Lastrea falciloba, Hook. Sp. Fit. iv. 

 p. 108, in part only. Aspidium hirsutulum, Wall. Cat. 7083, type 

 sheet example b, has no auricles on the stipe, and appears to me to 

 belong to the type (ciliata), it only consists of a single small frond, 

 and might belong to either, but I fear falci'oba and ciliata are not 

 well defined as varieties, but run one into the other. Clarke, 

 F. N. I. 515, excl. I: 105, Bedd. F. S. I. 



Khasya and Sikkim mountains up to 3,000 feet and river banks 

 in the plains. 



(Clarke's variety pubera does not belong here, Wall. Cat. 

 338, being Nephrodium arbuscula (typical), and from the Sirumal- 

 lays near Dindigal, not from Nepal. 



