io6 
Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
1. Pteris longifolia. (Z.) Stipe 6-12 inches long, stout, 
erect, paie, clothed more or less below with pale brown linear scales ; 
fronds 1-2 feet long, 4-9 inches broad, oblong-lanceolate, attenuated 
below; pinnae sessile, 20-30 on each side, 3-6 inches long, J-f inch 
broad, linear, entire, truncate or cordate or slightly auricled at the 
base ; texture subcoriaceous ; rachis naked or slightly scaly below or 
throughout; both surfaces naked; veins close and fine, usually once- 
branched ; indusium membranous, yellowish-brown. Linn. Sp. PI. 
T531. Hook. Syn. Fil. p. 153. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 33. 
Madras Presidency, in many localities ; throughout Bengal in 
the plains and up to 5,000 feet; Ceylon ; Birma. 
(Also widely distributed all round the world.) 
2. Pteris cretica. (Z.) Stipes 6-12 inches long, erect, wiry, 
naked, straw-coloured, pohshed ; fronds 6-12 inches long, 4-8 inches 
broad ; lateral pinnae usually in 2-6 opposite sessile pairs, of which 
the upper one is sometimes a little decurrent, 3-6 inches long |— f 
inch broad, the sterile ones generally the broadest, spinulose- serrated, 
the lowest or even 1-4 other pairs often cleft down nearly to the 
base into 2-3 linear pinnules ; margins, where barren, spinulose- 
serrate ; rachis and both surfaces naked ; texture coriaceous ; veins 
fine, close, parallel or wide apart in the narrow-segmented forms, 
simple or once-forked; involucre membranous. Lin7i. Aiant. p. 130. 
Hook. Syn. Fil p. 154. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 39. 
Madras Presidency, very common from sea-level up to 8,000 feet; 
Bengal Presidency, very general up to 9,000 feet ; Ceylon ; Birma. 
(Also widely distributed in Africa, Tropical America, South 
Europe, and elsewhere.) 
Var. /3 HETEROMORPHA. Pinnae abnormally pinnatifid. Pteris 
heteromorpha. Hook. Syn. Fil. p. 156. Bedd. F B. I. t. 89. This 
is, I think, only a variety of cretica, not a distinct species. 
Birma. 
(Also in the Philippine Islands.) 
3. Pteris pellucida. {Presl.) Stipes i foot or more long, 
