278 
Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
hairy or glabrous, with few or no scales ; fronds oblong-lanceolate, 1-3 
feet long, pinnate, pinnae spreading generally about 4-6 inches long by 
f inch broad, the lower ones generally more or less reduced, often into 
mere auricles, sometimes not reduced at all, generally cut down 
about half-way to the midrib into blunt subfalcate lobes ; texture 
herbaceous, generally more or less pilose on both sides, sometimes 
glabrous or subglabrous, except in the costas and costules ; veins 6- 
8 pair, pinnate in the lobes, the lowest pair (rarely two) anastomosing 
with an excurrent veinlet, involucres reniform glabrous or hairy. 
Desv. Mem. Soc. Linn. vi. 258. Hook. Syn. Fil. 293. Bedd. F. S. 
I. t. 84. and extensum, /. 85, not Bl. Polypodium parasiticum 
{Linn.) Asp. solutum, Wall. Cat. 350 and tectum, Cat 394. Neph. 
didymosorum, Bedd. F. B. L. t. 200. 
Throughout the Indian region from the plains up to 6,000 
feet. 
(Also throughout the world in tropical and subtropical regions.) 
Var. /3 AMBOiNENSE. {Fresl.) Fronds smaller, papyraceous, 
more glabrous, pinnae smaller, less cut, being generally only slightly 
crenated or cut down about J to i, very gradually reduced towards 
the base, the lower ones often being hastate and very acuminate, 
veins 4-5 pairs, 2 rarely 3 lower pairs anastomc sing ; sori generally 
on 2-3 lower veins, sometimes confined to the lowest pair (didymo- 
sorous). Neph. amboinense, LLook. Sp. Fil. 292. Nephr. extensum, 
var. /3 minor, Bedd. F. B. L. t. 201. Evidently only a form of moUe, 
sometimes confounded in herbaria with Arbuscula. 
North India, Bengal, and Assam, near the foot of the hills ; 
Ceylon, Ambagamoa. (C P. 3390.) 
Nephrodium procurrens is a name given by Baker {Syn. 
Fil. p. 290.) to moUe with a creeping root, but there are no other 
characters to distinguish this form, as I have the very large form of 
molle with the lower pinnae reduced to deltoid auricles (sent from 
Ceylon) with the root wide-creeping, as well as forms which have the 
fronds truncate at the base and no reduced lower pinnae. {Wall. 349, 
3rd sheet in this form.) 
