Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 447 
length glabrous ; sterile ones imbricated, very thick and corky 
towards the base, subrotund but very varied in circumscription, obed 
and sinuated at the margin, coarsely-reticulate-venose ; fertile fronds 
rather ]ong-stipitate of great size, 
5-15 feet long, from asubcuneate 
base, repeatedly dichotomous, 
the segments loriform, flaccid and 
pendent, fertile segments quite 
different from the rest, forming a 
large reniform, stipitate, shield- 
like receptacle, 6-8 inches or 
more in diameter, wholly sorifer- 
ous beneath, except at the margin. 
Bl. Filjav.p. 14, t' i8- Hook. 
Sp. Fil V. 285. Bedd. F. B. I. 
f. 109 and 224. A. fuciforme, n?273. 
Wall. Cat. n. 20. platycerium bifoeme. {Bl.) 
Malay Peninsula, Tenasserim, Mergui, Singapore. 
(Also in the Malay Islands and PhiUppines.) 
SUB-ORDER III.--OSMUNDACE.E. 
Capsule 2-valved, opening across the apex, furnished with a short 
horizontal wing ; vernation circinate. . 
GENUS LXXXIX.— OSMUNDA. {Lin.) 
[Osmunder, one of the names of Thor, a Celtic divinity.) 
Fertile frond wholly, on the upper or middle portion, contracted, 
forming simple or compound sporangiferous panicles ; veins forked, 
free ; fronds pinnate or bipinnate, articulated with the rachis. 
I. OsMUNDA jAVANicA. (Bl.) Stipes tuftcd, 6-12 inches long, 
firm erect, naked ; fronds up to 3 feet long, 8-12 inches broad, simply 
pinnate, the lower or central pinnae fertile ; barren pinnae 4-8 inches 
