F1LTCRS. 1389 



Annual, caudex short-creeping, scaly, stipes elongated, 

 rarely scaly ; fi on d submembraneous or more or less deltoid, 

 subtripinnate, ultimate lobes of the primary and secondary 

 divisions the largest, more or less pinnatifid ; pinnules elliptic 

 oblong or oblong lanceolate, subpinnatifid or crenate, with 

 broad blunt teeth involucres mostly elongated, more or less 

 confluent, more or less crenated or denticulate, sometimes 

 transversely wrinkled ; stipes and rachis purple-black, main 

 rachis winged above, secondary and tertiary rachises all with a 

 narrow wing-hook. 



Uses : — The Revd. A. Compbell writes that the Santals 

 prescribe a preparation from the roots of this fern for sickness 

 attributed to witchcraft or the evil eye. 



Actinopteris : — Sori linear, elongated, subimrginal, indusium 

 the same shape as sorus, folded over it placed one on each side 

 of the narrow segments of the frond, opening toward the midrib ; 

 a single species like a minature palm. 



1355. A. dichotoma, Forsk. 



Ref. : — Beddome, Handbook to Ferns of Br. Ind., p. 197. 

 Vern. : — Mor-pankhi ; mor-pach, (U. P.) ; Mayursikha 

 (Bomb.). 



Habitat: — Throughout India, especially the Peninsula in 

 dry rocky places below 3,000 feet elevation. Khandalla, Katraj 

 Ghat on Mahableshwar Road. I remember to have seen this 

 fern in the Victoria Gardens of Bombay. K. R. Kirtikar. 



Stipes densely tufted, 2-6in., long ; fronds like fans, l-ljin. 

 deep, composed of numerous dichotomous segments which are 

 rush-like in texture, not more than i line broad, the veins few 

 and sub-parallel with the indistinct midrib, the segments of the 

 fertile frond longer than those of the barren one. (Beddome.) 



Uses: — Used as an anthelmintic and styptic. 



Dr. Dymock speaks of A. lunatum and A. venustum col- 

 lectively and says : — '* The native physicians consider maiden- 

 hair to be deobstruent and resolvent, useful for clearing the 

 primas vise of bile, adust bile, and phlegm, also pectoral, 



