272 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



long, hairy, strong erect ; frond with the main rachis hairy beneath, 

 up to 2 feet long, pinnate ; pinnae very close, 3-6 inches long, by |— §- 

 inch broad, cut down scarcely one-third into triangular acute subfalcate 

 lobes, lower pinnae dwindling suddenly into mere auricles ; texture 

 very coriaceous, lower surface very pubescent ; veins (raised when 

 dry), 8-10 pair, 3-5 lower ones uniting; sori towards the apex of 

 the veins, which are generally all soriferous ; indusium prominent, 

 glabrous, persistent. Aspidium cucullatum, Bl. En. PI. Jav. Fil. 

 151. Hook. Syn. Fil. 290. N. unitum {Sieber), Wall. Cat. 358. 

 Bedd. F. S. I. t. 88. 



Madras Presidency, Western ghats, not common ; Ceylon, 

 Western and Southern provinces, marshy places, common ; Malay 

 Peninsula ; (Assam doubtful.) 



(Also in Mauritius, Malay Islands, and Polynesia.) 



7. Nephrodium elatum. {Baker) Rhizome wide-creeping, 

 stipes 1 foot long, downy; rachis downy; fronds oblong lanceolate, 3-4 

 feet long, pinnate, pinnse sessile, 9-15 inches long by i-i| inch broad, 

 cut down nearly two-thirds into close rather falcate blunt lobes ; lowest 

 pinnae distant and much reduced or not reduced at all, texture firm, 

 herbaceous, above rachis of pinnse strigose, and a few hairs on the 

 veins, beneath costules and veins hairy, with longish white hairs, 

 veins 13-16 pair, the lower 3-4 pair anastomosing with excurrent 

 veinlets, sori large medial, involucre minute fugacious. Baker, Syn. 

 Fil. 502. Bedd. Fern. Sup. t. 378. 



Himalayas (Dr. Jerdon.) Mr. Clarke has stated in his Review 

 that Dr. Jerdon's specimen is a Goniopteris, but on examining it with 

 me, he acknowledged that it is unlike any Goniopteris, and that it is 

 closely allied to, if not identical with, the Mauritius fern ; the lower 

 pinnae are not reduced in Jerdon's specimen at Kew, but much 

 so in the Mauritius plant, which is the only difference between 

 them, and this variation occurs as much in others of the genus. 



(Also in the Mauritius.) 



8. Nephrodium aridum. {Don.) Stipes 1 foot or more long, 

 erect, slightly pubescent ; fronds 3-4 feet long 12-18 inches broad ; 



