3^4 



Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



elongated and knotted with short frondiferous branches, everywhere 

 densely imbricated with intensely black polished ovate lanceolate 

 subcoriaceous concave scales, fuscous-pubescent at the margins, and 

 not hair-pointed ; stipes 6-9 inches long, glabrous, glossy ; fronds 

 6-18 inches long, 8-10 inches broad, cut down to a broadly winged 

 rachis into 6-20 pair of pinnae or segments, i-i^ inch broad, the 

 lowest pair generally deflexed, and either a little decurrent on the 

 stipe, or scooped out and subcordate at their bases, sometimes quite 

 patent as are the other pinnae, all a little serrulate, finely acuminate, 



glabrous, except the rachises 

 which are generally puberu- 

 lous, and the main rachis 

 sometimes scaly beneath; main 

 veins distinct to the margin, 

 areoles with copious free vein- 

 lets ; sori in a single row near 

 the midrib. Hook. Sp. Fil. 

 v. 88. Bedd. F. B. I. 138. 

 I cannot separate Clarke's 

 variety " Oakesii " from the 

 type; his variety " Parishii " is 

 a Drynaria as far as the Moul- 

 mein plant is concerned ; Jer- 

 don's Khasya specimen being 

 a single small sterile frond 

 without rhizome, which may be 

 ebenipes or hastata. Ebenipes, 



N?206. 



PLEOI'ELTIS INCURVATA. 



(£/.) 



though closely allied to hastata, seems to be sufficiently distinct as a 

 species in its peculiar rhizome, the fronds both in it and in mala- 

 codon, var. majus, are sometimes cordate, sometimes decurrent at 

 the base ; in malacodon type (in very many specimens examined) they 

 are always cordate, and in hastata always decurrent. 



Himalayas, from Ghurwal to Bhotan, 6,000-1 2,000 feet elevation. 



25. Pleopeltis incurvata. (B/.) Rhizome creeping, palea- 

 ceous, with adpressed scales ; stipes scattered, a span to a foot long 



