Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 261 
nearly 3 feet long ; texture herbaceous, pinnate above, with the pinnae 
6-9 inches long by li inch broad, pinnatifid two-thirds towards 
the rachis, bipinnate below, from some of the lower basal pinnules 
of the lowest pinnae being stalked and much elongated and deeply 
pinnatifid, and equal to some of the upper primary pinnae ; ultimate 
segments crenulate, a little hairy above (on the lamina, not the veins), 
with scale-like hairs, quite glabrous below in South Indian examples, 
but with scale-like hairs in specimens from Ceylon ; veinlets forked, 
always free, a forked veinlet often proceeds from the costa to the 
margin of the sinus, between the segments ; sori apical on the 
superior veinlet, forming a single row on each side of the segments 
nearer the margin than the midrib, involucre reniform, glabrous ; 
fertile portions of the frond often much contracted and frond often 
only partially seeding. Lastrea membranifolia, Bedd. F, S. L t 102, 
a small frond. 
The descriptions of Lastrea dissecta in Hooker s Syn. Fil. and 
of L. membranifolia in Hook. Sp. Fil. includes this species, the variety 
ingens and Pleocnemia membranifolia. 
Madras Presidency, Western mountains, common up to about 
5,000 feet elevation; also in the N. Arcot and Vizagapatam Hills; 
Ceylon, up to 5,000 feet; Birma. 
(Also in Malay Islands and Polynesia.) 
Var. ingens. {Clarke.) A very large fern, stipe and main ra- 
chis pubescent, and with lax narrow-lanceolate sparse brown deciduous 
scales ; fronds up to 9 feet long, the lower pinnae 2 feet and more 
long, bipinnate above, the pinnae about i foot long by 6 inches broad, 
the secondary pinnae quite distinct but sessile from a very broad 
base and deeply pinnatifid, tripinnate below, the lower basal pinnules 
of the lowest pinnae being stalked, elongated and again pinnated, 
their pinnules (tertiary pinnae) being deeply pinnatifid, and equalling 
the secondary pinnae above; ultimate segments entire, nearly 
glabrous above except on the costa, and costules, but there are a few 
scale-like hairs on the lamina, costa, costules and ofcen the veins 
beneath furnished with white glistening multicellular patent hairs; 
texture, venation and sori exactly as in dissecta ; involucre reniform, 
