358 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
gradually narrowed at the base, acute or blunt at the apex, carnose- 
coriaceous, very glabrous; venation immersed (visible in a dried state), 
main veins fine but distinct to the margin, areoles copious, including 
smaller areoles, in which are fi:ee simple or forked veinlets, with 
clavate apices ; sori compital, very small and scattered very irregularly, 
generally only on the upper half of the frond. Linn. Sp. PL 1524. 
Sw. in Schr.Joiir. 1800, ii. 21. Pleopeltis irioides. Hook. Syn. Fil. 
360. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 178. Wall. Cat. 281, glabrum, and 273, 
polycephalum. 
South India, Western mountains up 
to about 3,000 feet elevation ; Ceylon ; 
North India, in the Bengal plains, and 
up to 3,000 feet elevation ; Malay 
Peninsula. 
(Also in China, Malay Islands, North 
Australia, Polynesia, Southern and Central 
Africa and the islands. 
19. Pleopeltis mus^efolia. (^/.) 
In every way like punctata, so that the 
same description will do for both, except 
that the texture in this is, Uke that of ni- 
grescens and hemionitidea, thin and 
papery, with the veins very prominent, 
whilst punctata has fleshy leaves, in tex- 
pLEOPELTis PUNCTATA. ture hke Thamnopteris Nidus. Bl. Fil. 
^^^'^'^ Jav. p. 171, t. 79, Hook. Sy7i. Fil 360. 
Bedd. F. B. L t. 317. 
Malacca. 
(Also in the Malay Islands.) 
20. Pleopeltis hemionitidea. ( Wall?) Rhizome creeping, 
scaly, furnished with wiry scaly fibrous roots ; stipes scaly, winged 
upwards; fronds 6 inches to li foot long, 1-2 inches broad, mem- 
branaceous subchartaceous, subtransparent very dark shining green, 
broad lanceolate, gradually acuminated into a fine point at the apex 
