284 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
2-3 inches long, i-~ inch broad, usually acute at the apex, the 
margin entire or slightly crenate, the superior base with a small narrow 
auricle, the lower base with a smaller rounded one ; texture rather 
coriaceous, both surfaces nearly glabrous, or very scaly particularly 
when young ; sori submarginal ; indusium firm, reniform. Polypo- 
dium exaltatum, Z. Sp. Fl. 1548. Nephrolepis exaltata [Schott)^ 
Nook. Syn. Fil. 301. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 93. 
South India, the mountain forests of the Eastern and Western 
sides ; East Bengal from Assam to Chittagong, up to 1,000 feet 
elevation ; Ceylon ; Malay Peninsula. 
(Also in the tropics of nearly all the world.) 
3. Nephrolepis voLUBiLis. {y. Smithy MS.) Rhizome climbing, 
up to 50 feet over trees, with adpressed chesnut scales on the short 
lateral distant spurs, whence spring clusters of stipes ; pinnae obtuse or 
not very acute ; venation, sori, &c., as in exaltata. Aspid. exaltata. 
Wall. Cat. \oT,\, partly. Clarke, F N. I. p. ^^1, t 
Sylhet and Chittagong ; Malacca. 
(Also in Borneo.) 
4. Nephrolepis acuta. (Fresl.) Rhizome short ; stipes 
tufted up to 8 inches or more long, firm, naked or slightly scaly ; 
fronds up to 8 feet long, pinnate ; pinnae up to 8 inches long and i| 
inch broad, oblong acuminated, sometimes shortly petioled, the 
margin slightly crenated ; texture thin, both surfaces hairy when 
young, as is the rachis, but quite glabrous in age ; sori near the 
margin ; involucre reniform to suborbicular. Fresl. Hook. Sp. Fil. 
iv. 153. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 94. Neph. biserrata [Scholt). 
South India, common on the North Arcot Hills, at no great 
elevation ; Ceylon ; North India, Chittagong Hills, up to 1,000 feet. 
(Also in Tropical Africa.) 
5. Nephrolepis ramosa. {Beauv. tinder A spldhim.) Rhizome 
slender, wide-creeping; stipes very short, scattered; fronds up to 
12 inches long, 1-3 inches brqad, pinnate ; pinnae inch long, 
