Ferns of British India and Ceylon. hi 
usually once-forked ; lowest veins reaching the margin above the sinus 
when very deeply cut, at the sinus when less deeply cut ; sori gene- 
rally partial on the segments, rarely continued to the apex. Retz, 
Obs. vi. 38. Hook. Syn. Fil. p. 158. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 31. 
Throughout India, Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula, from the 
plains up to 8,000 feet, very common. 
(Also all round the world throughout the tropics and a little 
beyond them.) 
The following varieties are tolerably constant even in cultivation : 
Var. /3 ARGENTEA. Like the type, but with broad white 
bands down the centre of the pinnse. 
Nilgiris and Western mountains of the Madras Presidency only 
at high altitudes ; much in cultivation even in England. 
Var. y aspericaulis. Rachis and nerves red ; stipe and 
rachis asperous, generally very rigid, coriaceous, and shining. (Often 
called rubro-nerva.) 
Wynaad, Coorg, and elsewhere on the western side of Madras 
Presidency, 3,000-4,000 feet elevation. 
Var. ^ setigera. Rachises and costules setigerous, very 
membranaceous in texture, nearly all the pinnae bipartite, the lowest 
pair with sometimes several pinnse descending along the lower side. 
Bedd. F. B. I.t. 202. 
Coorg and Malabar : Moulmein on limestone rocks. 
Var. £ LUDENS. Pinnules very abnormally cut, sometimes 
, only with a waved margin for the greater length, then developing 
normal segments, then again narrowing into only the waved margin. 
Bedd. F. S. I. tabs. 41 and 219 (under Otaria.) « 
Malabar, Quilon ; Ceylon. 
Mr. Clarke gives the following varieties for Northern India : 
Var. q khasiana. The lowest pinnae with 5 secondary pinnse 
