Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



447 



length glabrous ; sterile ones imbricated, very thick and corky 

 towards the base, subrotund but very varied in circumscription, obed 

 and sinuated at the margin, coarsely-reticulate-venose ; fertile fronds 

 rather long-stipitate of great size, 

 5-15 feet long, from a subcuneate 

 base, repeatedly dichotomous, 

 the segments loriform', flaccid and 

 pendent, fertile segments quite 

 different from the rest, forming a 

 large reniform, stipitate, shield- 

 like receptacle, 6-8 inches or 

 more in diameter, wholly sorifer- 

 ous beneath, except at the margin. 

 BL Fil.Jav.p. 14, t. 18. Hook. 

 Sp. Fil. v. 285. Bedd. F. B. I. 

 t. 109 and 224. A. fuciforme, 

 Wall. Cat. n. 20. 



Malay Peninsula, Tenasserim, Mergui, Singapore. 

 (Also in the Malay Islands and Philippines.) 



N?273. 

 PLATYCERIUM BIFOEME. 



[Bu) 



SUB-ORDER III.— OSMUNDACE^E. 



Capsule 2-valved, opening across the apex, furnished with a short 

 horizontal wing ; vernation circinate.- 



GENUS LXXXIX.— OSMUNDA. (Lin.) 



(Os/nunder, one of the names of Thor, a Celtic divinity.) 



Fertile frond wholly, on the upper or middle portion, contracted, 

 forming simple or compound sporangiferous panicles ; veins forked, 

 free ; fronds pinnate or bipinnatc, articulated with the rachis. 



1. OSMUNDA javanica. [Bl.) Stipes tufted, 6-12 inches long, 

 firm erect, naked ; fronds up to 3 feet long, 8-12 inches broad, simply 

 pinnate, the lower or central pinnce fertile ; barren pinna? 4-8 inches 



