430 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



Very common throughout the Western forests of the Madras 

 Presidency and Bombay ; Ceylon ; Birma. Also in Chota 

 Nagpore, and on Parasnath : in typical forms there are no main 

 veins, and all the venation is indistinct, but other forms run 

 too closely into variabilis for it to be considered a distinct specLs ; 

 the fronds are often quite rounded at the base, but at other times 

 nearly as decurrent as in variabilis, the seeding is normally over the 

 whole of the under surface of the fertile frond, but sometimes it is 

 in a broad line on each side of the costa, leaving a considerable 

 margin of the lamina; without sori, or at other times the seeding is 

 punctiform or grammitoid (Bedd. F. B. I. t. 274), or the upper half 



of the frond is contracted and sori- 

 ferous, as in Gymnopteris spicata, 

 (Hymenolepis of authors). In South 

 Canara and Coorg there are forms with 

 both sterile and fertile fronds 3-lobed 

 {Bedd. F. B. I. t. 273), and in Ceylon, 

 pinnatifid forms [Bedd. F. S. I. t. 211) 

 with often as many as five distinct pinnas 

 on each side the rachis, with only a nar- 

 row wing, but as the ordinary form is 

 sometimes mixed with these evtn on 

 the same root they can only be consi- 

 dered abnormal forms, not distinct 

 varieties. 



GYMNOPTERIS MINUS. {Mett?) 



Var. 7 axillaris. (Cav.) This is a name given to a variety 

 with a long slender tortuous rhizome, which creeps up trees, but it 

 scarcely differs otherwise, the main veins are less prominent than in 

 variabilis, but more so than in lanceolata. Cav. Pnvlect. 1801, n. 582. 

 Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 276. Bedd. F. B. I. L 271. 



South India, in all the western forests ; Plains of Bengal and 

 Assam ; Birma. 



2. Gymnopteris minus (Metlen.) Small, rhizome creeping, 



