212 
GYMNOPTERIS VARIABILIS. (Hook.) Caudex long creeping flexuose scarcely paleaceous, fronds distant ; sterile one 
itiembranaceons, 6 inches to a foot and 14 inches long (including the decurrent base) 1 -24 inches wide broadly ovato -lanceolate costate 
acuminate below rather suddenly attenuated and very long decurrent upon the scaleless stipes sometimes almost to the base, the margin 
subrepand, costules very distinct subhorizontally patent, primary areoles large transversely oblong, secondary ones subquadrangular . 
including free divaricating veinlets ; fertile fronds narrow-linear often 6-10 inches long 2-3 lines e on very long scaleless stipites 
often a foot long, sori continuous often spreading over the margin ;—Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 277 ;—Gym. decurrens. Hook. Gard. Ferns. 
f > ;=Acrostichum rivulare. Wall, Cat. n. 2165, | | 
The specimen figured is from the Courtallum Forests, it differs from G. Feei in its very prominent costules. I have specimens 
from Birmah with the costules far more prominent and more regular than those in this figure, but I also have specimens nearly inter- 
mediate as to venation between true Feei and variabilis, and I have doubts about the two species being really distinct, the Courtallum plant 
is much more membranaceous in texture than Feei and the venation is very prominent. Sir W. Hooker refers the Ceylon pinnatifid 
variety of Fevi (Plate CCXI. of Ferns of Southern India) to this species, but it has quite the venation of Feei, each segments of the frond 
hag a costa (as in my three-lobed variety figured in the next plate), but there are no prominent costules. 
Hab, Tinnevelly forests 2—3,000 feet elevation, Assam, Kkasya, Penang, Java. 
PLATE No, CCLXXII. 
