Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 269 



angularly, with an excurrent veinlet which runs to the margin or joins 

 one rarely two pair of the superior veins ; upper surface glabrous, 

 under surface generally very hairy ; sori medial on the veins ; indu- 

 sium reniform, hairy. P. Br. Prod. Fl. Nov. Ho//. 148. Hook. 

 Syn. Fil. 289. Polypodium unitum, Linn. Sp. P/. 1548, in part. 

 N. propinquum, Hook. Sp. Pi/, iv. 79. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 89. 



Throughout the Indian region in swampy places and tanks. 



(Also in Tropical Asia, Africa, Australia and America.) 



3. Nephrodium pteroides. (Retz. under Po/ypodium.) Rhi- 

 zome wide-creeping, stipes up to 2 feet long, slender, slightly scaly 

 below ; fronds up to 4 feet or rather more long and 2 feet broad, 

 pinnate, pinnae spreading f to nearly 1 inch broad, apex acuminate, 

 (lower ones not reduced), cut down only one-third, the lobes triangular, 

 acute ; texture herbaceous ; rachis and upper surface nearly glabrous, 

 under surface with minute glandular pubescence on all the veins, 

 veins pinnate on the lobes, the lowest pair always anastomosing 

 angularly with a free excurrent veinlet, the other veins, (7-9 pair,) 

 always free ; sori towards the apex of the upper veinlets always con- 

 fined to the lobes or the apex of the lobes. Polypodium pteroides, 

 (Retz.), Hook. Syn. Pi/. 289. Nephr. terminans, Wall. Cat. 386. 

 Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 73. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 90. 



Madras Presidency, Western mountains, '2,000-4,000 feet 

 elevation; Ceylon, up to 3,000 feet; Birma; (not in N. India). 



(Also in the Philippines.) 



Very near extensum, but less cut, the anastomosis of the veins 

 regular and the sori terminal. 



4. Nephrodium extensum. (B/.) Rhizome creeping, stipes 

 up to 2 feet, glabrous or slightly pubescent ; fronds up to 4 feet long, 

 and 1 i foot broad, pinnate; pinnae about f inch broad (lower ones 

 not reduced), cut down two-thirds into linear oblong-falcate slightly 

 crenulate lobes; texture herbaceous; rachis subglabrous, upper surface 

 naked, or with a few distant hairs, under surface with minute glandular 

 pubescence on the veins ; veins pinnate in the lobes, 10-13 pair, 

 the lowest pair anastomosing at an angle with a free excurrent 



