448 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 
characters. D. polypodioides, Don, besides the raised veinlets giving the segments a 
stout plicate appearance, always has the rhachis of the pinne beneath strigose hirsu- 
tulous; i. e. the hairs are close together, straight, somewhat stiff, slanting forwards. 
Beddome’s figures, above quoted, do not show these; but I presume he has got the true 
plant, and that the lax sparse villousness of the rhachis in his figures is the work of his 
native artist. As to the varieties, which graduate completely into each other, and which 
are exceedingly alike in texture, venation, and the nature of the indumentum, the fol- 
lowing have been noted :— 
Var. 1. strigosa. Frond 2-pinnate, the secondary pinne not pinnatifid.— 2. strigosa, 
var. a, Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 93. 
Var. 2. rhomboidea. Frond 3-pinnate; ultimate segments in their outline subentire, 
lightly crenate. D. rhomboidea, Wall. Cat. 257. 
Var. 3. pilosula. Frond 3-pinnate; ultimate segments deeply notched, often more hirsute 
and some thin, straight, patent hairs added. D. pilosula, Wall. Cat. 263. 
Var. 4. hirta. More hairy than var. 3.—Hook. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 100. 
Besides the foregoing are the numerous forms of fronds from young rhizomes.— Benth. 
Fl. Austral. vii. 717, judging from his diagnosis, from his synonymy, and from the Aus- 
tralian material at Kew, has included under Davallia spelunce the whole of the present 
D. polypodioides, Don, as well as D. flaccida, R. Br.; and I suspect that is the course 
which ultimately pteridologists will take. 
17. D. FLACCIDA, R. Br. Prodr. 157. Frond usually 3-pinnate; rhachis of the pinne 
beneath with flaccid hairs, or sometimes very villose, but not strigose; ultimate 
segments thin, flat; the veinlets not raised beneath.—Don, Prodr. Fl. Nep. 10; 
Blume, Enum. Pl, Jav. Fil. 237, exl. syn. D. pilosa, Roxb. in Cale. Journ. Nat. Hist. 
iv. 515, t.32. D. puberula, Wall. Cat. 262. D. pyramidata, Wall. Cat. 261. D. spe- 
lunce, Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 100; Luerssen, Fl. Graeff. 218; Benth. Fl. Austral. 
vii. 717. D. jamaicensis and trichosticha, Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 188. Aspidiwm pilosulum, 
Wall. Cat. 337, partly. .4. puberwm, Wall. Cat. 338. — Microlepia spelunce, Moore; 
Carr. in Fl. Viti. 340; Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 353. Polypodium speluncæ, Linn. 
Sp. Pl. 1555? 
From Kumaon to Upper Assam and Chittagong, alt. 0-4000 feet, common. —Distrib. 
Deccan Peninsula and Ceylon; Malay Peninsula and Islands; and in the Tropics nearly 
throughout the world. 
Cyathevid, Griff. Ic. Pl. As. 131, i. fig. 1’, 2, 3’, 4’, Notul. i. ii. 625, perhaps belongs 
here. As to 131, i. fig.1, it appears from the Notul. Z. c. not to be the same; it may 
be Hypolepis, and, if so, not North-Indian, 
There are two Deccan and one Ceylon specimen of this at Kew; and Wall says it is 
common in Ceylon, though Beddome doubts whether it is a South-Indian fern. It must 
be very doubtful therefore whether it is the fern Linnseus described from Ceylon as — 
Polypodium spelunce. Fronds flaccid, usually large, sometimes 10 feet long. This fern ` 
