* 



ME. C. 13. CLAEKE ON FEENS OF NORTH INDIA. 403 



which, perhaps from its long cultivation, has no well-distinct flora 

 of its own. 



The Perns of Southern India have been illustrated completely 

 by Colonel Beddome, who knows them thoroughly in the field • 

 and it will not be easy to add very much to his account. Colonel 

 Beddome has also, in his € Perns of British India,' illustrated the 

 Ferns of North India ; but he has collected very little in North 

 India, and his work has been founded on material, often scantv, 

 forwarded to him. The scope of the present paper is therefore 

 confined to North India. 



The material compared comprises : — 1st, the Kew collection ; 

 2nd, my own collection, which, so far as North India is con- 

 cerned, is rather more complete than the Kew collection ; 3rd, 

 the Wallichian Herbarium : a complete reduction of this, so far 

 as the North-Indian ferns are concerned, is appended to the 

 paper. 



The whole of the descriptions have been written in the Kew 

 Herbarium, with the privilege of consulting Mr. Baker on every 

 point as it arose. After each large tribe was written out, Major 

 P. Henderson, F.L.S., came to Kew and went through the wholo 

 material (except Wallich's type collection) with the MS. The 

 present paper would therefore be better entitled by Clarke and 

 Henderson ; the very few and trifling points on which we have 

 not agreed are specially mentioned in the paper as they occur. 



The paper contains no striking changes nor auy new genera. 

 The new species described are but 17 out of 380. The paper is 

 made up mainly of minute corrections, and attempts to define the 

 species more closely in words. The most important features in 

 the paper are the rehabilitation of many old species of "Wallich, 

 and the removal of several imperfectly known species from the 

 positions assigned them by Mr. Baker to new genera or sub- 

 genera. Thus 



Alsophila Brunoniana, Wallich, becomes Hemitelia Brunoniana. 



Aspidium fenieulaceuru, Hook., „ Diacalpe faeniculaciea. 



Polypodium dareseforme, Hook., „ Davalha dareaeformis. 



Davallia repens, Baker, » Lmdsaya'repens. 



Diplasium longifolium, Baker, „ Euasplenium longifohum. 



Aspidium sikkimense, Baker, „ Lastrea sikkimensis. 



Gouiophlebium erythrocarpon, Baker, „ Pleopeltis erythrocarpa. 



These alterations, it is hoped, are not likely to be disputed by 

 those who can inspect the new material. 



