Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 267 



with the apex crenated in the upper portion of the frond ; veins 

 in the larger ultimate segments pinnate with veinlets simple, in the 

 smaller segments veinlets once-forked only, all terminating a little 

 within the margin ; sori medial or terminal on the veinlets, 1-6 to 

 each ultimate segment, involucre very deciduous. Polypodium tene- 

 ricaule, Wall. Cat. 335. Lastrea flaccida, Bedd. F. S. I. t. 90. 

 Polyp. Pvussellianum, Wall. Cat. 7077. Lastrea setigera, Baker, Syn. 

 Fil. 284, in part. 



Hooker's and Baker's descriptions of tenericaulis and setigera 

 are made to include Phegopteris ornata, a very different fern. I 

 have never been able to detect an indusium even in the youngest 

 stage of our South Indian plant, and I should follow Wallich and 

 include it in Phegopteris, only Mr. Clarke says it is present in the 

 Bengal examples. 



South India, on the Western mountains, 2,000-3,000 feet 

 elevation, very common; Ceylon, 1,500-3,000 feet; North India, 

 Himalays from no great elevation up to 4,000 feet ; Malay 

 Peninsula. 



(Also in China, Australia, and Polynesia.) 



GENUS LI V.— NEPHRODIUM. {Sc/iott.) 



(From nephros, a kidney ; shape of indusium.) 



Sori subglobose, dorsal on the veins ; (often athyrioid in otaria) 

 indusium reniform, sometimes wanting ; veins pinnate, one or more 

 pair anastomosing angularly with an excurrent veinlet from their 

 junction which is either free or joined in the angle of the next 

 superior pair ; fronds always simply pinnate with pinnatifid pinna? in 

 the Indian species (rarely simple in species not Indian) ; caudex 

 erect or creeping. Most of the supposed species of Goniopteris fall 

 in here, as an indusium is often present in the very young stage 

 though sometimes entirely absent. 



1. NEPHRODIUM Otaria. (Kze.) Rhizome creeping, stipes 6-12 

 inches long, pale-coloured; fronds 12-15 inches long, pinnate, lateral 



