Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 435 
free branched and divaiicating veinlels ; fertile fronds much elon- 
gated but contracted, tripartite nearly to the base, segments scarcely 
^ an inch wide, linear strap-shaped acuminate, lateral ones 9-10 
inches long, erect-subpatent, intermediate one a foot and more long, 
sori generally universal except on the costa, or sometimes the ter- 
minal lobe only is soriferous, or rarely the apex only of one or more 
lobes is contracted and soriferous as in Gymnopteris spicata. Hoo/^. 
Sp. Fil.y. 2^2. Bedd. F. B. I.t. sz- 
Sikkim, at Goke below Dar- 
jeeling, 1,500 feet elevation. 
10. Gymnopteris conta- 
MiNANS. ( Wall.) Rhizome thick, 
short creeping; stipes scaly, 
fronds glabrous, pinnate, 1-2 feet 
long, of which the stipe is about 
^ ; rachis generally more or less 
winged sometimes prominently, 
more or less scaly^ pinuce 1 1-30 
alternate sessile or very shortly 
petiolate, lanceolate from nearly 
entire to slightly crenated or pin- 
natifid one-third down, with the 
segments serrated, terminal pinnae 
often more or less elongated, 
generally viva parous (the lateral 
ones rarely so) ; primary veins rather distant more or less conspicuous 
two-thirds of the way to the margin, areoles broad, in 3-4 series, 
the costal ones without any veinlets, the others with generally 
several veinlets irregulary disposed, mostly joining with the areole 
above, but some free with clavate apices ; fertile pinnae much 
cojitracted,|^entire[^or sinuate pinnatifid according to the form of the 
sterile, generally wholly soriferous, rarely only partially contracted into 
seed. Acrostichum contaminans, Wall. Cat. 22, and crispatulum, 
Cat. 24. Paecilopteris repanda, Bedd. F. S. I. t. 202. Semicordata, 
Baker, Syn. Fil. 422. Bedd. F. B. I. 270. Blumeana, Hook. Syn. 
N9263. 
GYMNOPTERIS TRICUSPIS. 
{Book.) 
