338 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



digitately dichotomous, dark brownish-green above, pale and tawny 

 beneath, segments 4-8 inches long, scarcely half an inch wide, linear- 

 sublanceolate, finely acuminated costate entire ; venation manifest, 

 the costules form a costal series of large soriferous areoles, the rest of 

 the veins unite, constituting lesser areoles and include free veinlets ; 

 sori 1-2 in each primary areole (sometimes confluent) in a single 

 series very near the costa. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 100. Hook, in Kew 

 Gard. Misc. v. p. 300, /. xi. Bedd. F. B. I. t. 233. Polypodium 

 bifurcatum, Baker in Syn. Fil. p. 362. 

 Malacca, on Mount Ophir. 



GENUS LXIV.— DRYNARIA. (Bory.) 



{Dryads, the sterile fronds being like oak-leaves, a tree sacred to the 



Dryads.) 



Fronds articulate with the caudex, with either a separate sterile 

 frond like an oak leaf, or the base of the frond pinnatifid and oak- 

 leaf-like ; veins copiously anastomosing, forming quadrate or hex- 

 agonal areoles ; sori small, round or oval, numerous 



1. Drynaria coronans. {Wall) Rhizome thick, creeping, 

 branched and interwoven, villous-paleaceous with golden scales ; 

 fronds large uniform, when growing arranged in a circle, firm, coria- 

 ceous, but rather thin and translucent, two and more feet long, from 

 a broad sessile cordate, lobate-pinnatifid base (then suddenly con- 

 tracted), lanceolate, deeply almost to the rachis pinnatifid, segments 

 8-12 inches long, f-i inch and more wide, oblong-lanceolate, acu- 

 minate, lower ones gradually shorter, entire, incrassated at the margin ; 

 venation very manifest, costules parallel extending to the margin, 

 these are connected by transverse veins forming 5-6 soriferous areoles 

 and then again generally two or three others which include free 

 veinlets; sori oval, often confluent longitudinally, solitary in the 

 primary areoles, forming an eccentric series alwa) s nearer one costule 

 than the opposite one. Wall. Cat. n. 288. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 94. 



