401 MR. C. B. CLARKE Off FERNS OF NORTH INDIA. 



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Attempt is made to fix more fully, and therefore more ac- 

 curately, the habitats. In the c Synopsis ' Baker usually gives 

 " North India " or " Himalaya " only. The moist climate of East 

 Bengal nourishes a large number of ferns in the plains. Of the 

 ferns collected rarely, as full habitats are given as can be got from 

 the tickets. 



The confusion that has arisen from the quotations of Wallich's 

 numbers is very great, and very difficult now to set straight. 

 The general rule is that the large-paper type, with the litho- 

 graphed name of Wallich on it marked A in the Wallichian 







Herbarium, is to govern the name of the fern, and that the B, C . . . 

 and small-paper sheets of Wallich's collection, distributed under 

 the same name, are, when they differ from the large-paper A (as 

 is very frequently the case), of no authority. But even this plain 

 rule cannot be always acted up to ; the whole of the duplicate 

 sheets of Wall. Cat. 361, Aspidium fuscipes, Wall., are the fern 

 known (and figured by Beddome) asficscipes ; but Wallich's own 

 large-paper A 361 is Neplirodium sagenoides, Baker. As Mr. 

 Moore has already pointed out, the fern described by Sir W. 

 J. Hooker as Asplenium Finlaysonianum, Wall. Cat. 191, is indeed 

 the fern of the duplicate sheets of Wall. Cat. 191 ; but the 

 whole of the large-paper Wall. Cat. 191 is Asplenium macro- 

 phyllum, while Wallich's own name for A. Finlaysonianum was 

 A. Hookerianum, Wall. Cat. 2682. Such mistakes are difficult to 

 remove entirely from the pages of botanic history in the case of 

 very common and well-known species, as are the two quoted ; 

 still more difficult to deal with are errors regarding critical or 

 little-known species. 



It has not been thought judicious in a paper of this nature to 

 attempt any radical changes in the genera &c. of ferns, though a 

 good deal of matter bearing thereon has been collected. The 

 species are marshalled as in Hk. & Baker's ' Synopsis/ the 

 leading principle adopted being to make as few changes as 

 possible. 







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