MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 449 
grows at low elevations, and is one of the few ferns that spread out a hundred miles from 
the hills over the plains of East Bengal, as mentioned by Roxburgh. It is thin in 
texture, with weak glandular pubescence, and often more or less villous also. Several 
varieties of this were distinguished by Wallich; but they run completely into one 
another. 
Var. 1. pubera. Rhachis of the pinne slightly glandular-pubescent beneath, or nearly 
glabrous.—Aspidiwm puberum, Wall. Cat. 338.—The least-common variety. 
Var. 2. pilosula. Rhachis of the pinne beneath with lax scattered hairs not straight. 
—Aspidium pilosulum, Wall. Cat. 337. 
Var. 3. pyramidata. Rhachis of the pinne densely villous beneath.— Wall. Cat. 261. 
Alsophila Grevilleana, Wall. Cat. 7075.—This is the critical form; the ultimate 
segments are often very villous beneath; and this state is, I find, usually ticketed 
D. hirta; but the texture is thin, the veinlets not raised beneath, and the pu- 
bescence is not strigose. | 
-I would not pretend to lay down the law concerning these difficult forms, con- 
cerning which Col. Beddome does not agree with Mr. Baker; but having collected 
this fern in numerous forms on many occasions, and having a large series, I am clear 
that D. pyramidata, Wall., runs into D. flaccida, R. Br., rather than into any form of 
D. strigosa or hirta, Baker. I communicated a very flaccid example of D. flaccida from 
young rhizomes sparsely in fruit to Col. Beddome, which he returned, saying he had 
no name for it. Another still weaker example (less divided) of mine I found in the 
D. strigosa Kew bundle. Both these were from young rhizomes among a bed of D. flac- 
cida typica. 
Sect. V. Stenoloma. Rhizome creeping ; stipes tufted, not articulated upon the rhizome ; 
involucres terminal on the segments, often uniting. 
18. D. cuivensts, Swartz, Syn. Fil. 183; Roxb. in Cale. Journ. Nat. Hist. iv. 517; 
Langsd. & Fisch. Voy. Russ. t. 27; Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 187; Carr. in Fil. Viti. 338. 
D. tenuifolia, Swartz; Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. Fil. 239; Wall. Cat. 245; Presl, 
Tentam: Pterid. t. 4. fig. 27; Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 186; Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 16; 
Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 102. Trichomanes chinensis, Linn. d: P1. 1562. Lindsaya 
chinensis, Mett.; Luerssen, Fil. Graeff. 224. 
Himalaya; from Kumaon to Bhotan; alt. 1000-4000 feet, plentiful. Khasia; alt. 
1000-3000 feet, common.—Distrib. South India and Ceylon, Malaya, China, Japan, 
Polynesia, East-African Islands. 
There is no good line here between Davallia and Lindsaya. Mett, Fil. Hort. Lips. 
108 says that in Davallia the veinlets are carried free to the edge, while in Lindsaya 
they form a lodged marginal vein near the edge. In D. tenuifolia it is common to find 
confluentsori. Mettenius (7. c.) left the present species in Microlepia ; but it exists in the 
Kew Herbarium marked “ em tenuifolia, Mett. 1; and I do not — why it is 
not a Lindsaya. SCH 
Q 
