42 



ASPID1EJE. 



LASTKEA SPLENDENS (Hook.) Caude* ^-stipes 1-2 feet (and probably much more) long |-f inch broad especially at 



the base more or less clothed with close-pressed deciduous scales dark chestnut-brown or often (as well as the principal rachis) . 

 black and polished, frond ample 2-4 feet long, coriaceous broad-lanceolate acuminate bi-pinnate, pnmary pinna 6 inches to more than , 

 fo long U-2 inches wide, subpetiolate oblong finely acuminated and pinnatifid at the very apex, pinna sessile oblong^ovate acute or 

 lelahy broader at the b^se and subauricled above, the rest crenate or lobato-pinnatifid, the lobes short obtuse entoe or dentate, veuuete 

 2-3 furcate sori 8-14 large conspicuous forming two lines close to the eostule, involucres rather large orbicnlar-reniform coriaceous dark- 

 brown often paler at the margin -^. Sp. Fil. iv. 126.-« Lastrea splendens, Wall." in Hook. Yl. Ms. Cat. of M. Fern, n. 2*7.- 

 var. A angustifrons ; smaller, stipes black or testaceous-brown, frond copiously 3-pinnate. Lastrea angustifrons, Moore Mss. 



The" specimen figured is from Sikkim, Himalaya, (Dr. Thomson.) 



Ilab. Sikkim, Himalaya, Bhotan Malay, Peninsula,— Var. /3, Nepaul. 



PLATE No. XLII. 



