114 Ferns oy British India and Ceylon. 
veins once forked ; sori continuous nearly to the apex of the seg- 
ments. I/oo/^. Syn. Fil.p. 158. Bedd. F. S. L t. 43. 
Sikkim ; Khasya ; Cachar; Sylhet up to 3,000 feet elevation ; 
Travancore and Tinnevelly Mountains ; Malay Peninsula. 
(Also in the Malay Islands.) 
13. Pteris excelsa. [Gaud.) Fronds ample, 5-6 feet long, 
submembranaceous, light green, pinnate ; pinnae large, remote, 6 
inches to a foot long, numerous, ovate-lanceolate caudate sessile, 
lower ones long-petiolate, lowest pair of pinnje entire, or sometimes 
bipartite, all deeply pinnatifid nearly to the costa; segments {2-4 
inches long) from a broad base, linear-lanceolate obtuse serrated 
subfalcate, lower base decurrent, veins free, forked at or near the 
middle or 3-4 branched ; very rarely a few veinlets anastomose ; in- 
volucres continuous from the base almost to the apex, rather broad ; 
stipes very stout and flexuose ; rachises bright castaneous glossy. 
Hook. Sp. Fil. ii. 183. Gaud, in Freyc. Voy . Bot. p. 2^'^'^' Bedd. 
F.B.I, t. 218. 
Kumaon, Gurwhal ; Dalhousie, 4,000-8,000 feet elevation; 
Sikkim, 8,000-9,000 feet ; Nynee Tal. 
(Also in the vSandwich Islands.) 
14. Pteris patens. {Hook.) Caudex erect ; stipes numerous, 
stout, scaly at their base, rachis stout, glabrous ; fronds ample, erect, 
strict, membranaceous, pinnate ; lower pinnae bi-tripartite ; pinnae 
8-16 inches long, strict horizontally patent, numerous approximate, 
elongate oblong, acuminate, rarely subcaudate, sessile or lower ones 
shortly petiolate, deeply (almost to the rachis) pinnatifid ; segments 
horizontal, very uniform, linear, scarcely acuminate, serrulate where 
sterile, the base dilated decurrently-confluent on both sides, especially 
at the lower base, sometimes apart ; veins all free, simple or once 
or twice forked ; sori continuous nearly to the apex. Hook. Syn. 
Fil. ii. 177. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 205. Campteria patens. Baker. 
Hook. Syn. Fil.p. 165. (The supposed narrow costal arches are 
only a wing to the rachis.) 
Madras Presidency, Carcoor ghat, Wynaad and Travancore Hills, 
