268 



Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



pinnae distant, 4-6 inches long, if inch broad, linear-oblong, trun- 

 cate at the base, caudate at the apex, coarsely but shallowly lobed, 

 the lobes serrated ; terminal pinna sometimes with larger lobes or 

 auricles towards its base ; texture thin herbaceous ; rachis and 

 surfaces smooth ; veins pinnate in each lobe, 6-8 on each side, the 

 lowest pair anastomosing angularly, with an excurrent vein which 

 either runs out to the margin or occasionally joins one or even two 

 of the superior veins (but the anastomosing is not so systematic as 

 in the other species of the genus) ; sori medial on the veinlets, most 



of which are soriferous ; fertile 

 frond often contracted but not 

 always; indusium reniform or 

 often asplenioid and athyrioid. 

 Aspidium otaria, Kunze, Herb. 

 Mett. Aspid. p. 34. Hook. Syn. 

 Fil. 288. Pleocnemia aristata, 

 Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 62. Bedd. 

 F. S. I. t. 83. The sori are quite 

 abnormal, the venation and posi- 

 tion of the sori are not at all 

 that of Pleocnemia. 



South India, Anamallay 



Hills, the dry teak forests, 1,000- 



3,000 feet elevation, appearing in 



the rainy season, Tinnevelly 



N9I37. Hills and elsewhere on the Wes- 



nephrodium otaria. {Kzc) tern ghats, but by no means 



general; Ceylon, 2,000-3,000 feet elevation. 



(Also in Luzon.) 



2. Nephrodium unitum. {Linn, lender Folypodium.) Rhizome 

 creeping, stipes i-if foot long, brownish naked; fronds about 2 feet 

 long, pinnate, pinnae numerous, 3-5 inches long, ^ inch broad, cut 

 down about one-third, rarely more, into triangular acute entire or 

 subentire lobes, lower pinnae not reduced ; texture coriaceous ; veins 

 pinnate in the lobes, 4-8 on each side, the lowest pair anastomose 



