MR. C. B. CLARKE ON HIMALAYAN FERNS. 289 
mediate in character between 
these root-florets and the 
normal capitula. 
This singular phenomenon 
1s not confined to the plant 
in question. The base of 
Scirpus arenarius, Boeckl., 
has thick clusters of flowers, 
quite hidden when growing 
in the sand. Similar in- 
stances have been noticed 
by Dr. Asa Gray in Scirpus 
supinus, L., a small form of 
which in the Kew Herbarium, ` Rootstock-florets of Catananche lutea. 
from S. Africa, shows them x 
plainly ; but none of the European specimens of the typical form 
which have come under my notice display them. A specimen 
of Eritrichiun capituliflorum, Clos, collected in Chili in 1873 by 
Mr. E. C. Reed, in the Kew Herbarium, shows carpels at the base 
of the stem, which are seemingly perfect. Subterranean flowers 
have also been detected in Epiphegus virginiana, as mentioned by 
the Rev. G. Henslow in “Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Botany, i. 
p. 373. 
[Since writing the foregoing, I have accidentally found that 
Salisbury knew of these root-florets. In his ‘Prodromus : (1796), 
p. 183, he writes of this species:—“ Floret ssepe singulariter juxta 
radicem.”] 
Note on two Himalayan Ferns ES treated in the “ Ferns 
of Northern India." By C. B. Cratke, F.R.S., F.L.S. 
[Read June 1, 1882.] 
H. C. Levinas, Secretary to the Government in the Public Works 
Department, one of the most accomplished pteridologists now in 
India, has written to me several letters regarding my paper on 
the Ferns of Northern India, published in the Transactions of 
this Society for 1880; he has also transmitted to me at Kew fine 
series of examples of several of the critical species ; and has con- 
vinced me that several of the species I have admitted are only 
varieties, while many of the species reduced by me, especially 
among the compound Athyriums, would be better retained as 
