4i6 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
TRIBE XII.— ACROSTICHE^. 
Sori spread in a stratum over the under surface, or rarely over 
both surfaces of the frond, not confined to the veins only. 
GENUS LXXXL— ELAPHOGLOSSUM. {Schott) 
[Elaphos, a stag ; g/ossa, tongue.) 
Veins free, simple or forked, their apices sometimes clavate, 
fronds simple, entire, sessile or stipitate, the fertile somewhat con- 
tracted and generally sporangiferous over the whole under surface ; 
stipes adherent to the rhizome, but generally pseudo-articulate a httle 
above the base. 
1. ELAPHOGLOSSUM CONFORME. (Stu.) Rhizomc woody, wide 
creeping, scales blackish, ovate, jagged, not hair-pointed ; stipes firm 
erect, 2-3 inches long in the sterile, and often much more in the 
fertile, black at the base up to the pseudo-articulation, where it breaks 
off in age, generally clothed with sheathing scales ; sterile fronds 2-9 
inches long, seldom more than i inch broad, narrow-lanceolate 
acuminate, furnished with deciduous scales on both sides, quite 
glabrous in age, margin slightly revolute in age ; veins hidden, 
generally once-forked, just reaching the margin ; fertile fronds some- 
what contracted. Sw. Syn. Fil. 10, 192, /. i. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 
198. Hook. Syn. Fil. 401. 
South India, Western mountains, at the higher elevations, very 
common ; Ceylon ; Malay Peninsula ; Sikkim and Nepal, 6,000- 
9,000 feet elevation, Khasya, 4,500-6,000 feet elevation. 
(Also in Austraha, Central and South Africa, Queensland, 
Polynesia, and the Malay Islands.) 
2. ELAPHOGLOSSUM LATiFOLiuM. {Sw.) Rhizomc woody, wide- 
creeping, scales bright chesnut or golden, lanceolate and more 
pointed than in conforme ; stipes longer than in conforme and the 
deciduous scales not sheathing ; fronds much larger than in conforme, 
and generally over 2 inches broad, margin diaphanous and much 
