230 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
South India, very general in the AVestern forests of the Madras 
Presidency; Ceylon; Birma. 
I have always found the involucre strictly reniform, and Hooker 
has described it both under Polystichum and Lastrea (in the latter 
as Lastrea platypus) ; it is a much less divided fern than coniifolia, 
besides having an utterly different caudex ; Mr. Clarke, who unites 
it with coniifolia, states, that he has never been able to see that a 
creeping caudex accompanies a less divided form, but Mr. Clarke's 
specimens are all typical coniifolia, and there is no aristata from the 
Himalayas in the Kew Herbarium, and only one poor specimen from 
Khasya, labelled Lastrea platypus. 
(Also in Japan, Formosa, South China, Java, Luzon, and 
Norfolk Island.) 
3. Lastrea affinis. ( IValL) Very similar to aristata and 
amabilis, but the lower pinnae less compound than in aristata and 
often quite similar to the upper ones ; texture much more coriaceous 
and sori very large. IVa//. Cat. 370. Lastrea aristata, var. Hamil- 
tonii, Bedd. Fern. Sup. pi. 369. Hook. Syn. Fil. 256. As- 
pidium speciosum (Don.), Aspidium aristatum, var. affinis, and var. 
assamica, Clarke^ I. c. 511. 
I formerly considered this species a variety of aristata, I have 
never seen it growing, but Mr. Clarke tells that the rhizome is erect 
and not creeping, so I cannot consider it a variety of either aristata 
or amabilis. 
Sikkim, Nepal, Assam, Jaintea. 
4. Lastrea coniifolia, [Wall) Rhizome erect; stipes 
tufted ; fronds very large, ovate, 2-3 feet long, 4-5 pinnate, ultimate 
pinnules and segments small, coriaceous shining, aristate ; sori large 
or small; indusium reniform or orbicular. Bedd. F. B. I. 261. As- 
pidium, Wall. Cat. 341. 
I have always found the involucres reniform in their young 
stage, I have had both this and aristata in cultivation on the Nilgiris 
for many years, and they show no tendency to run one into the 
other. 
