264 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



hairs on both sides ; sori medial on the veinlets, one to each segment, 

 becoming jet black when ripe, indusium (?) Aspidium scabrosum 

 (Kunze), Hook. Syn. Fil. p. 283. Polypodium nigrocarpum, Bedd. 

 F S. I. t. 169. 



Nilgiris, common in the sholas at the higher elevations, 6000- 

 7,500 feet ; in texture and habit the pinnae much resemble those of 

 Cystopteris setosa. I have never been able to detect any indusium 

 even in the youngest stage, though I have long had it in cultivation ; 

 I suspect it is really a Phegopteris. 



44. Lastrea ferruginea. (Bedd.) Caudex short, stout, erect, 

 stipes 1-1^ foot long, densely clothed throughout with broad-ovate 

 very transparent scales and scabrous with tubercles ; fronds 1-2 

 feet long, deltoid-ovate, tripinnate below, bipinnate tripinnatifid 

 above, texture herbaceous, turning blackish when dried, pinna? 8- 

 10 inches long, spreading at a right angle, the lowest pair deltoid and 

 larger than the others and more compound, its lower basal secondary 

 pinnae being elongated and pinnate, bipinnatifid ; secondary pinnae 1-2 

 inches long, pinnate in the lower and larger pinnae, pinnatifid above, 

 pinnules about ~ inch long, cut about half down into oblong rounded 

 crenate or subentire segments ; rachises and both sides ferruginous, 

 with minute glandular scale-like pubescence, veinlets simple or forked, 

 terminating within the margin and clavate at the apex, sori medial 

 or subterminal on the veins, submarginal, one to each lobe of the 

 tertiary pinnae, in the South Indian plant confined to the upper lobes, 

 in the Ceylon plant more lobes are seeded and the sori are not quite 

 so marginal, indusium reniform, glabrous, persistent. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 

 100. Hook. Syn. Fil. 283. Lastrea obtusiloba (Baker), Hook. Syn. 

 Fil. 284. Bedd. F. S. 1. 1. 296. Asp. Blumei, var. ? Thwaites, p. 392. 



South India, Nilgiris, rare in sholas between Avalanche and 

 Sispara, 7,500 feet elevation, not observed elsewhere; Ceylon (C. P. 

 3142), about Newera Elya, 6,000 feet elevation. The Ceylon and 

 South Indian plants are certainly the same ; I had both in cultivation 

 for a long time and could not have distinguished them except for the 

 labels ; it is nearly allied to scabrosa, but quite a different colour 

 both living and dried, more ferruginous, and not scabrous. 



