j6 Ferns of British India And Ceylon. 



15. Nephrodium molle. Typical molle is always more or 

 less shortly pilose on both sides, and of soft texture, never papy- 

 raceous ; in some forms the lowest or two lower pinnae are only a 

 little reduced and deflexed ; in others several pair, rarely more 

 than three or four, are more or less reduced in size and distant 

 from the others, but there is never a reduction to mere auricles, 

 such forms belonging to the next variety, or to amboinense ; the 

 rhizome is generally erect, but occasionally decidedly creeping, 

 but not to the same extent as those in the first section. 



Var. major. Rhizome erect, or somewhat creeping ; fronds 

 very large, often 4-5 feet high, 8-12 inches broad ; pinnae very 

 numerous, the lower ones generally gradually reduced to butterfly- 

 like auricles down to the base of the stipe, more glabrous than 

 type, often quite glabrous except the costa above ; pinnae cut 

 down \-\ way towards the rachis; veins 7-8, the 2-3 lower pair 

 anastomosing ; sori medial generally on all the veins except the 

 1-2 apical ones. 



Travancore and Tinnevelly Hills ; Mussoorie, 5,500 feet alt. 

 {Hope); Nynee Tal. (Dyas) ; Ceylon ( Wall) ; Singapore (Wall. 

 Cat. 352, 2nd sheet, Linn. Herb.). 



(Also in Sumatra, Herb. Nat. Hist. Mus.) 



Mr. Hope considers this a well-marked fern, and says that it 

 is subarborescent, and of a brilliant green colour ; his specimens 

 have quite an erect caudex ; Mr. Wall's Ceylon specimens, how- 

 ever, have a decidedly creeping root ; at Kew it has generally 

 been put in the amboinense bundle, though some specimens have 

 been placed in molle and some in procurrens ; it never has the 

 texture of amboinense, and the pinnae are deeper cut ; it is a most 

 marked fern when fully auricled nearly down to the base of the 

 stipe, but I find this is not always constant, as I have specimens, 

 which run molle rather close. 



Nephrodium evolutum. (n. sp.) Rhizome strong, erect or 

 sub-erect ; fronds up to 3-4 feet or more long, of which the stipe 



