85 
pinne simple and usually sessile with the 
wings decurrent on the rachis, the lower usually 
stalked and cleft down to the base into 2-3 
pinnules, margin serrate, fertile segments 
narrower, and serrate where barren. Surfaces 
naked. Rachis naked. Texture leathery. Veins 
simple or forked, closely parallel. Sori continu- 
ous on the margin. [Plate VII.] 
Distribution: Madras Presidency, very 
common from sea level up to 8,000 feet; Bengal 
Presidency, very general up to 9,000 feet ; 
Ceylon; Burma.—Africa, Tropical America, 
South Europe and elsewhere. 
A garden fern. 
Var. albolineata (Hort.)—This is a garden 
variety having broad white bands down the 
centre of the pinne. 
3. Pteris ensiformis Burm. 
Rhizome short, creeping. Stipe up to Io 
inches long, naked. Fronds of two sorts, up 
to 12 inches long by 3-6 inches broad; 
fertile fronds with lateral pinne either simple, 
forked, trifid, narrow, pinnules linear, acuminate, 
more compound, about 4-inch broad, segments 
very narrow, }-inch broad, almost sessile with 
lower wing continuous on the rachis. Sterile 
