298 Ferns of British India and Ceyi.on. 
branched by complete pinnate fronds springing from the axils of the 
pinnae, pinnae generally 4-6 inches long, -l-f inch broad, the 
margin bluntly lobed or crenated, the apex blunt or acute, texture 
herbaceous or subcoriaceous, rachis and under side glabrous or 
slightly pubescent ; veinlets fine, 6-10 on a side; sori medial, puncti- 
form oblong or even linear and often confluent in age. Roxb. Wall. 
Cat. 312, in Calc. Jourii. N'af. Hist. iv. 489. /. 32. Hook. Sy7i. Fil. 
315. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 172. Meniscium, Swartz. 
Throughout the Indian region generally on banks of rivers and 
ditches in the plains or low down on the hills. 
(Also in North Australia, Tropical and South Africa and its 
Islands ; Philippines ; New Caledonia ; South China.) 
GENUS LIX.— DICTYOPTERIS. {Presl.). 
{Diktyoft, a net ; pteris, fern — the veins netted.) 
Habit and venation of Aspidium, i.e.^ veins copiously anasto- 
mosing with or without free included veinlets, only differing from 
Aspidium in wanting an indusium. 
1. DiCTYOPTERis Barberi. (^^?^,) Stipes tuftcd, 6-1 2 incV cs 
long, slightly scaly at the base ; fronds palmately 5-lobed or more 
usually pinnate with a large terminal segment and 1-4 pairs of pinnae, 
the upper ones oblong-lanceolate, 4-6 inches long, i inch broad, 
nearly entire, the lowest pair with a deep lanceolate lobe at the base 
on the lower side, texture subcoriaceous, both sides naked ; areoles 
rather large and regular, with copious free veinlets ; sori copious, 
principally in two rows near the main veins, dorsal or terminal on a 
vein or veinlet. Hook. Sp. v. p. 100. Syn. Fil. 317. Bedd. 
F. B. I. t. 122. 
Malacca. 
(Also in the Malay Islands.) 
2. DiCTYOPTERis TENERiFRONS. {Hook.) Caudcx Small, creep- 
ing underground, scaleless with very few radicles, stipes few, remote, 
