Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



435 



free branched and divaricating veinlets; fertile fronds much elon- 

 gated but contracted, tripartite nearly to the base, segments scarcely 

 ^ an inch wide, linear strap-shaped acuminate, lateral ones 9-10 

 inches long, erect-subpatent, intermediate one a foot and more long, 

 sori generally universal except on the costa, or sometimes the ter- 

 minal lobe only is soriferous, or rarely the apex only of one or more 

 lobes is contracted and soriferous as in Gymnopteris spicata. Hook. 

 Sp. Fil. v. 272. Bedd. F.B. I.t. 53. 



Sikkim, at Goke below Dar- 

 jeeling, 1,500 feet elevation. 



10. Gymnopteris conta- 

 minans. ( Wall) Rhizome thick, 

 short creeping ; stipes scaly, 

 fronds glabrous, pinnate, 1-2 feet 

 long, of which the stipe is about 

 \ ; rachis generally more or less 

 winged sometimes prominently, 

 more or less scaly, pinnae 11-30 

 alternate sessile or very shortly 

 petiolate, lanceolate from nearly 

 entire to slightly crenated or pin- 

 natifid one-third down, with the" 

 segments serrated, terminal pinna? 

 often more or less elongated, 

 generally vivaparous (the lateral 

 ones rarely so) ; primary veins rather distant more or less conspicuous 

 two-thirds of the way to the margin, areoles broad, in 3-4 series, 

 the costal ones without any veinlets, the others with generally 

 several veinlets irregulary disposed, mostly joining with the areole 

 above, but some free with clavate apices; fertile pinna? much 

 contracted, 'entire Jor sinuate pinnatifid according to the form of the 

 sterile, generally wholly soriferous, rarely only partially contracted into 

 seed. Acrostichum contaminans, Wall. Cat. 22, and crispatulum, 

 Cat. 24. Paecilopteris repanda, Bedd. F. S. I. t. 202. Semicordata, 

 Baker, Syn. Fil. 4-22. Bedd. F. B. I. t. 270. Blumcana, Hook. Syn. 



N?263. 

 GYMNOPTERIS TRICUSriS. {Hook.) 



