MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. AAT 
172, t. 484. Microlepia scabra, Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 102. M: urophylla, 
Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 103, not of Wall. Polypodium marginale, Thunb. Fl. 
Jap. 337. HO 
Nepaul and Kumaon, Wallich. Khasia, Griffith. Mikir Hills, Simons. In the Kew 
Herbarium only 8 sheets from India.—Distrib. Formosa, Japan. 
Pinne above shining, somewhat coriaceous; the midrib pubescent or hirsute; beneath 
the veinlets (in the dried example) are much raised, as in D. polypodioides, Don.—In 
the form of this species which has the pinne subentire the sori are wide apart and 
at some distance from the edge, the involucres hirsute; so that it is easily separated 
from D. Hookeriana, where the sori are in a quasi-continuous row very near the 
margin, the involucres glabrous. The present species is only separated here from 
D. polypodioides, Don, in that its pinné are pinnatifid not more than halfway down, 
while in the least-divided forms of D. polypodioides, Don, the pinne are divided very 
nearly, if not quite, to the midrib; i. e. the frond is called bipinnate. 
Var. calvescens, (sp.) Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 172, t. 485. .Pinnz glabrous beneath, except the 
strigose hirsutulous midrib.— Davallia urophylla, Wall. Cat. 2683, not of Hook. 
Kumaon, JZallich.—Wall. Cat. 2983, cited by Hook. l: c, is not a fern. It is 
perhaps through some mixture of the numbers here that D. urophylla has been supposed 
to grow in Kumaon. 
16. D. POLYPODIOIDES, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nep. 10. Frond bipinnate, sometimes tripinnate ; 
rhachis of the pinnz beneath strigose hirsutulous; veinlets of the ultimate seg- 
ments raised beneath (in the dried examples).—Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 181, var. y and 
-part 3. D. Khasiyana, Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 178, tt. 47 A, 574. D. hirta, Kaulf. ; Hook. 
Sp. Fil. i. 181; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 100. D. strigosa, Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 
80. D. Roxburghii, Wall. Cat. 2218. D. rhomboidea, Wall. Cat. 257. D. pilosula, 
Wall. Cat. 263. D. prorima, Blume, Enum. Pl: Jav. Fil. 238. Dicksonia polypo- 
divides, Swartz, Syn. Fil 356. Trichomanes strigosum, Thunb. Fl. Jap. 339. 
Microlepia strigosa, Moore; Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 255. M. hirta, Bedd. Ferns 
Brit. Ind. t. 256. ! H^ 
Himalaya, from Kumaon eastwards ; Khasia, Chittagong, abundant; most common at 
3000-5000 feet alt.—Distrib. Malabaria and Ceylon, Malay Peninsula and Islands, China, 
Japan, Polynesia, and Tropical America. j: 
No Indian fern, in the opinion of W. 8. Atkinson and Major F. Henderson, is more 
difficult to limit or to subdivide than this. There are no good breaks in the series from 
D. scabra, Don, to D. flaccida, R. Br. I here follow exactly Mr. Baker, but unite his 
D. strigosa and hirta into one species. They differ solely in the degree to which they 
are divided. This will depend largely (as W. S. Atkinson has shown) on tlie age of the 
rhizome; the same rhizome which in its early years produces 2-pinnate fronds will in 
full strength produce 3-pinnate. I have D. flaccida, R. Br. type once-pinnate scarcely 
twice-pinnate, the fronds being in scanty fruit as usual with such from weak rhizomes. - 
| I separate D. polypodioides, Don, from D. flaccida, R. Br., by a combination of two 
J SECOND SERIES.—BOTANY, VOL. I. | 3Q 
