2/8 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



hairy or glabrous, with few or no scales ; fronds oblong-lanceolate, 1-3 

 feet long, pinnate, pinnae spreading generally about 4-6 inches long by 

 f inch broad, the lower ones generally more or less reduced, often into 

 mere auricles, sometimes not reduced at all, generally cut down 

 about half-way to the midrib into blunt subfalcate lobes ; texture 

 herbaceous, generally more or less pilose on both sides, sometimes 

 glabrous or subglabrous, except in the costas and costules ; veins 6- 

 8 pair, pinnate in the lobes, the lowest pair (rarely two) anastcmosing 

 with an excurrent veinlet, involucres reniform glabrous or hairy. 

 Desv. Mem. Soc. Linn. vi. 258. Hook. Syn. Fil. 293. Bedd. F. S. 

 L. t. 84. and extensum, /. 85, not Bl. Polypodium parasiticum 

 (Linn.) Asp. solutum, Wall. Cat. 350 and tectum, Cat. 394. Neph. 

 didymosorum, Bedd. F. B. L. t. 200. 



Throughout the Indian region from the plains up to 6,000 

 feet. 



(Also throughout the world in tropical and subtropical regions.) 



Var. /3 amboinense. (Fresl.) Fronds smaller, papyraceous, 

 mere glabrous, pinnae smaller, less cut, being generally only slightly 

 crenated or cut down about ^ to i, very gradually reduced towards 

 the base, the lower ones often being hastate and very acuminate, 

 veins 4-5 pairs, 2 rarely 3 lower pairs anastomc sing ; sori generally 

 on 2-3 lower veins, sometimes confined to the lowest pair (didymo- 

 sorous). Neph. amboinense, Hook. Sp. Fil. 292. Nephr. extensum, 

 var. (5 minor, Bedd. F. B. L t. 201. Evidently only a form of molle, 

 sometimes confounded in herbaria with Arbuscula. 



Noith India, Bengal, and Assam, near the foot of the hills ; 

 Ceylon, Ambagamoa. (C. P. 3390.) 



Nephrodium procurrens is a name given by Baker (Syn. 

 Fil. p. 290.) to molle with a creeping root, but there are no other 

 characters to distinguish this form, as I have the very large form of 

 molle with the lower pinnae reduced to deltoid auricles (sent from 

 Ceylon) with the root wide-creeping, as well as forms which have the 

 fronds truncate at the base and no reduced lower pinnae. ( Wall. 349, 

 3rd sheet in this form.) 



