34 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



jet-black colour when dry, not like any other species that I am 

 acquainted with. 



8b. Athyrium McDonelli. {Bedd.) Rhizome stout, 

 creeping; stipes much thickened at the base, about 12 inches 

 long, furnished with a few deciduous large lanceolate scales, and 

 furfuraceous, as is the rachis, with tawny, curled, hair-like scales ; 

 fronds pinnate, about 14 inches long by 8-10 inches broad at the 

 base, ovate to deltoid-lanceolate ; pinnae lanceolate, about 18-20 

 pairs, alternate or subopposite, 4-5 inches long by about i\ inch 

 broad, pinnatifid nearly to the midrib, leaving only a winged 

 margin to the villous partial rachis ; pinnules ligulate-oblong 

 from a square base, about J inch broad, cut down about ^ into 

 small oblong lobes ; texture herbaceous ; surfaces naked or nearly 

 so ; veins one to each lobe, forked or pinnate or rarely simple ; 

 sori one to each lobe, not reaching the margin ; involucres 

 athyrioid or asplenioid, generally very hippocrepiform, never 

 diplazioid. Bedd. Jour, of Bot. March, 1889,/. 73. 



Chumba State, 5,000 feet alt. (McDonell.) A very dis- 

 tinct species, with the habit of the Ceylonese Diplazium 

 Schkuhrii and the Cuban Diplazium conchatum. 



8c. Athyrium Duthiei. ' {Bedd) Rhizome wide-creeping, 

 black, nearly naked ; stipe 3-4 inches long, furnished with a few 

 ovate or lanceolate deciduous scales, glabrous, pinkish ; fronds 

 narrow, ovate-lanceolate, about 12 inches long, 3-4 inches broad ; 

 pinnae lanceolate alternate, about 20 on each side ; lower ones 

 gradually reduced ; the central ones \\-2 inches long, \-\ inch 

 broad, pinnatifid nearly or quite to the rachis into sharply-toothed 

 obovate or lanceolate lobes about two lines broad ; texture 

 herbaceous ; rachises glabrous pinkish, furnished with a few 

 deciduous large lanceolate scales ; both surfaces glabrous ; veinlets 

 forked ; sori asplenioid or hippocrepiform, 6-8 to each pinnule 

 or lobe, i.e., 3-4 on each side on the lower veinlets, midway 

 between the edge and the midrib. Bedd. Jour, of Bot, March 

 1889,/. 72. 



