F1LI0E8. 
1389 
Annual, caudex Bhort-creeping, scaly, stipes elongated, 
rarely scaly ; fiond submembraneous or more or less deltoid, 
subtripinnate, ultimate lobes of the primary and secondary 
divisions the largest, more or less pinnatifid ; pinnules elliptic 
oblong or oblong lanceolate, subpinnatifid or crenate, with 
broad blunt teeth involucres mostly elongated, more or less 
confluent, more or less crenated or denticulate, sometimes 
transversely wrinkled ; stipes and rachis purple-black, main 
rachis winged above, secondary and tertiary rachises all with a 
narrow wing-hook. 
Uses : — The Bevd. A. Compbell writes that the Santals 
prescribe a preparation from the roots of this fern for sickness 
attributed to witchcraft or the evil eye. 
Aetinopteris : — Sori linear, elongated, submarginal, indusium 
the same shape as sorus, folded over it placed one on each side 
of the narrow segments of the frond, opening toward the midrib ; 
a single species like a minature palm. 
1355 . A. dichotoma, Forak. 
Ref. : — Beddome, Handbook to Ferns of Br. Ind., p. 197. 
Fern. : — Mor-pankhi ; mor-pach, (U. P.) ; Mayursikha 
(Bomb.). 
Habitat : — Throughput India, especially the Peninsula in 
dry rocky places below 3,000 feet elevation. Khandalla, Katraj 
Ghat on Mahableshwar Road. I remember to have seen this 
fern in the Victoria Gardens of Bombay. K. R. Kirtikar. 
Stipes densely tufted, 2-6in., long ; fronds like fans, l-l^in. 
deep, composed of numerous dichotomous segments which are 
ru6h-like in texture, not more than * line broad, the veins few 
and sub-parallel with the indistinct midrib, the segments of the 
fertile frond longer than those of the barren one. (Beddome.) 
Uses : — Used as an anthelmintic and styptic. 
Dr. Dymock speaks of A. lunatum and A. venustum col- 
lectively and says : — “ The native physicians consider maiden- 
hair to be deobstruent and resolvent, useful for clearing the 
prim® vise of bile, adust bile, and phlegm, also pectoral, 
