138 



PLEOPELTIS. (See « Ferns of Southern India/' p. 57.) 



PLEOPELTIS EBENIPES. (Hook.) Caudex stout creeping elongated and knotted with short frondiferous branches, every 

 where densely imbricated with intensely-black polished ovato-lanceolate subcoriaceous concave scales f usco-pubescent at the margin, 

 stipites stramineous 6 inches to a span long, fronds a span to 1J foot long broad-ovate or deltoid cordate at the base, acuminated (by the 

 long terminal segment) coriaceo-membranaceous subrufescent when dry, minutely and compactly pellucido-punctate deeply pinnatifici with 

 acute or obtuse sinuses, segments 4-5 inches long, f -1 inch wide, very patent from a broad base oblong-lanceolate sharply acuminate, closely 

 serrated, lowest pair generally opposite and drawn in as it were at the very base so as to form a more or less 'deep sinus at the summit of 

 the stipes, venation very manifest, costules distinct parallel moderately distant extending to the margin, these are united by transverse 

 veins forming about 3-4 series of areoles including free and connected veinlets of which the second only are soriferous, sori very large 

 orbicular in a single series very near the costa.— Hook Sp. Fil. iv. p. 88. Polypodium melanopus.— Br. in Wall. Cat. n. 293 in part 

 (v. Cat. n. 293 at p. 83, not P. melanopus Hook and Grev.J 



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



Hab. Nepaul (10,000 feet elevation); N. W. Himalaya (8—9,000 feet elevation), Sikkim (8,000 feet.) 



PLATE No. CXXXVIIL 



