426 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 
by Sir W. J. Hooker, the remainder by Mr. Baker; but for shortness I have quoted it 
as though a joint work. 
Botanists are pretty well agreed in England to give each Phænogam the specific name 
given it by him who first referred it to the right genus; but Pteridologists follow the ` 
contrary rule, giving each Fern the specific name given it by him who first referred it to 
the wrong genus or to any genus. Mr. Bentham, in the ‘Ferns of the Australian 
Flora,’ has submitted to this distinction; it seems to me untenable. It is argued, 
indeed, that the species of Ferns have been arranged in genera in so many ways that : 
less confusion on the whole arises by taking the oldest specific name; I think this isa 
very dangerous line of argument for any one to advance who follows the contrary rule ` 
with regard to Pheenogams. I doubt whether the genera of Indian Ferns have been ` 
more changed than those of the Indian Rubiaces. However, as the present paper is 
founded on Hk. & Baker's Syn. Fil., I have, to avoid confusion, followed the rule adopted ` ` 
in that work, and have only changed Hk. & Baker's names where I have supposed — 
myself compelled to do so in order to be consistent. I have quoted a large numberof | 
synonyms, which I believe a matter of great importance for the firm establishment of — 
species; I have quoted none that I have not looked up and satisfied myself to mean the — 
plant referred to: the only exceptions to this statement are references to Milde's d 
Equisetum, Luerssen's Ophioglossum, and a few others of the same kind, in which : T 
cases botanists will at once understand that it would take weeks to master such elaborate 
monographs, and that I have not done so. a 
I have endeavoured to fix more accurately the habitat of the North-Indian Ferns. To — 
read Hk. & Baker’s Syn. Fil., or even Beddome’s ‘Supplement to the Ferns of India, t 
it would appear that the vast moist tropical plain of Bengal was nearly destitute of ` 
ferns. This, I need hardly say, is not so— several ferns attributed by authors to the 
* Himalaya" being abundant in Bengal, and several of them indeed, so far as my 
knowledge extends, being quite unknown in the Himalaya. | 
The Plates appended to the paper are entirely supplementary to those of Col. Beddome, 
and are not intended to be complete in themselves. Col. Beddome has so nearly 
exhausted the Ferns of India, that the Plates are merely designed to bring out minor 
differences to assist in specific determination: e.g. when a Plate is given of a fern 
scarcely specifically different from the universal Pteris quadriaurita, I have not given 
an analysis of the fruit to show that the genus is Pteris. So of the critical Athyriums, | 
the Plates are designed merely to give an idea of the cutting, so difficult to define. ge 
words. | 
In the *Supplement to the Ferns of India,' Col. Beddome allows (species and vin 
with separate numbers) l 
Ap SOO. E ar eo O 
In Southern India . . . sous MEM £A 
In the Trans-Gangetic Peninsula sor te DEUS 1n 
In Northern DUE. senes usc ` LA 
The nu paper admits 363 species in Northern India, exelusive of 12 ric n 
