424 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



New Caledonia ; Philippines ; Cochin China ; Mascareen Islands, 

 and Tropical Africa.) 



. GENUS LXXXIIL— POLYBOTRYA. (If. B. K.) 



(Poly, many ; botrys, bunch — in allusion to the fructification.) 



Fronds pinnate, bipinnatifid or subbipinnate, the sterile not 

 lomarioid in habit, generally viviparous, fertile much contracted ; 

 veins pinnate, all free; stipes adherent to the rhizome. 



i. Polybotrya appendiculata. (Willd.) Rhizome thick, 

 short-creeping, stipes and rachis scaly, scales linear, not adpressed ; 

 fronds pinnate, glabrous, the sterile ones viviparous at the apex ; 

 pinna? 25 to 50 pair, subopposite or alternate, oblong-lanceolate, ob- 

 tuse, 2-3 inches long, \ an inch broad, rather deeply crenated with 

 a setaceous bristle between each crenature, superior basal crenature 

 the largest, inferior base cuneate and slightly unequal ; veins not 

 prominent, pinnate free ; fertile fronds much contracted, pinnse much 

 shorter than the sterile ones. Willd. Sp. PI. 114. Bedd. F. S. f. 

 t. 194. Wall. Cat. 28 and 2685. 



Common throughout the Indian region. 



(Also in Philippines and Hong Kong.) 



The above description only relates to the type, but there are 

 several varieties more or less permanent. 



Var. )3 major. Stipes and rachis very thick, \ inch or rather 

 more in diameter, rough with dense adpressed scurfy scales ; pinnse 

 1 inch in breadth, not auricled at the superior base or cuneate and 

 unequal at the inferior ; main veins very prominent and straight and 

 costa-like veinlets more numerous and very prominent. 



Sikkim ; a very large fern, unlike any forms in Southern India or 

 Ceylon. 



Var. y aspleniifolia. (Bory.) Rachis with copious linear 

 patent scales, fronds seldom proliferous at the apex ; pinnse very 



