430 
Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 
Very common throughout the Western forests of the Madras 
Presidency and Bombay ; Ceylon ; Birma. Also in Chota 
Nagpore, and on Parasnath : in typical forms there are no main 
veins, and all the venation is iniistinct, but other forms run 
too closely into variabilis for it to be considered a distinct specijs; 
the fronds are often quite rounded at the base, but at other times 
nearly as decurrent as in variabilis, the seeding is normally over the 
whole of the under surface of the fertile frond, but sometimes it is 
in a broad line on each side of the costa, leaving a considerable 
margin of the laminae without sori, or at other times the seeding is 
punctiform or grammitoid {Bedd. F. B. I. t. 274), or the upper half 
of the frond is contracted and sori- 
ferous, as in Gymnopteris spicata, 
(Hymenolepis of authors). In South 
Canara and Coorg there are forms with 
both sterile and fertile fronds 3-lobed 
{Bedd. F. B. I. t. 273), and in Ceylon, 
pinnatifid forms {Bedd. F. S. I. t. 211) 
with often as many as five distinct pinnae 
on each side the rachis, with only a nar- 
row wing, but as the ordinary form is 
sometimes mixed with these even on 
the same root they can only be consi- 
dered abnormal forms, not distinct 
GYMNOPTERIS MINUS. {Mett.) . . 
varieties. 
Var. 7 AXILLARIS. {Cav.) This is a name given to a variety 
with a long slender tortuous rhizome, which creeps up trees, but it 
scarcely differs otherwise, the main veins are less prominent than in 
variabilis, but more so than in lanceolata. Caz'. Prcelect. 1801, n. 582. 
Hook. Sp. Fil. V. 276. Bedd. F B. I. i. 271. 
South India, in all the western forests ; Plains of Bengal and 
Assam ; Birma. 
2. Gymnopteris minus. {Metk?i.) Small, rhizome creeping, 
