424 
Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
New Caledonia ; Philippines ; Cochin China ; Mascareen Islands, 
and Tropical Africa.) 
GENUS LXXXIII.— POLYBOTRYA. {H.B.K.) 
{Poly^ many ; botrys^ bunch — in allusion to the fructification.) 
Fronds pinnate, bipinnatifid or subbipinnate, the sterile not 
lomarioid in habit, generally viviparous, fertile much contracted; 
veins pinnate, all free ; stipes adherent to the rhizome. 
I. PoLYBOTRYA APPENDicuLATA. {WHld.) Rhizomc thick, 
short-creeping, stipes and rachis scaly, scales linear, not adpressed ; 
fronds pinnate, glabrous, the sterile ones viviparous at the apex ; 
pinnae 25 to 50 pair, subopposite or alternate, oblong-lanceolate, ob- 
tuse, 2-5 inches long, \ an inch broad, rather deeply crenated with 
a setaceous bristle between each crenature, superior basal crenature 
the largest, inferior base cuneate and slightly unequal ; veins not 
prominent, pinnate free ; fertile fronds much contracted, pinnae much 
shorter than the sterile ones. Willd. Sp. PL 114. Bedd. F. S. I. 
t. 194. Wall. Cat. 28 ajid 2685. 
Common throughout the Indian region. 
(Also in Philippines and Hong Kong.) 
The above description only relates to the type, but there are 
several varieties more or less permanent. 
Var. j3 MAJOR. Stipes and rachis very thick, I inch or rather 
more in diameter, rough with dense adpressed scurfy scales ; pinnae 
I inch in breadth, not auricled at the superior base or cuneate and 
unequal at the inferior ; main veins very prominent and straight and 
costa-like veinlets more numerous and very prominent. 
Sikkim ; a very large fern, unlike any forms in Southern India or 
Ceylon. 
Var. 7 ASPLENiiFOLiA. {Bory.) Rachis with copious linear 
patent scales, fronds seldom proliferous at the apex ; pinnas very 
