2/2 
Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
long, hairy, strong erect ; frond with the main rachis hairy beneath, 
up to 2 feet long, pinnate ; pinnae very close, 3-6 inches long, by f-| 
inch broad, cut down scarcely one-third into triangular acute subfalcate 
lobes, lower pinnae dwindHng suddenly into mere auricles ; texture 
very coriaceous, lower surface very pubescent ; veins (raised when 
dry), 8-10 pair, 3-5 lower ones uniting ; sori towards the apex of 
the veins, which are generally all soriferous ; indusium prominent, 
glabrous, persistent. Aspidium cucullatum, Bl. En. PI. Jav. Fil. 
151. Hook. Syn. Fil. 290. N. unitum {Sieber), Wall. Cat. 358. 
Bedd. F. S. I. t. 88. 
Madras Presidency, Western ghats, not common ; Ceylort, 
Western and Southern provinces, marshy places, common ; Malay 
Peninsula ; (Assam doubtful.) 
(Also in Mauritius, Malay Islands, and Polynesia.) 
7. Nephrodium elatum. {Baker) Rhizome wide-creeping, 
stipes I foot long, downy; rachis downy; fronds oblong lanceolate, 3-4 
feet long, pinnate, pinnae sessile, 9-15 inches long by i-ii inch broad, 
cut down nearly two-thirds into close rather falcate blunt lobes ; lowest 
pinnae distant and much reduced or not reduced at all, texture firm, 
herbaceous, above rachis of pinnae strigose, and a few hairs on the 
veins, beneath costules and veins hairy, with longish white hairs, 
veins 13-16 pair, the lower 3-4 pair anastomosing with excurrent 
veinlets, sori large medial, involucre minute fugacious. Baker, Sjn. 
Fil. 502. Bedd. Fern. Sup. t. 378. 
Himalayas (Dr. Jerdon.) Mr. Clarke has stated in his Review 
that Dr. Jerdon's specimen is a Goniopteris, but on examining it with 
me, he acknowledged that it is unlike any Goniopteris, and that it is 
closely allied to, if not identical with, the Mauritius fern ; the lower 
pinnae are not reduced in Jerdon's specimen at Kew, but much 
so in the Mauritius plant, which is the only difference between 
them, and this variation occurs as much in others of the genus. 
(Also in the Mauritius.) 
8. Nephrodium aridum. {Don.) Stipes i foot or more long, 
erect, slightly pubescent ; fronds 3-4 feet long 12-18 inches broad ; 
