MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA, - 461 
been much confounded with both those species.—In some of my examples the involucres 
are peltate, not continuous even in age, and the margin of the fertile frond appears from 
above crenulated : such examples are exactly Cheilanthes.. In other of my examples the 
sori are so continuous in a line that the genus appears Pteris. Mr. Baker is in medio 
tutissimus in Pellea.—The texture of the frond is coriaceous, shining beneath, whence 
Wallieh's name. Sir W. J. Hooker was misled (in Sp. Fil. ii, 113) by possessing only 
poorly preserved specimens. | 
4. P. CALOMELANOS, Link, Fil. Hort. Berol. 61. Glabrous; frond 1-2-pinnate; ultimate 
segments stalked, cordate- or hastate-ovate, or rhomboidal obtuse, entire or undu- 
lately 3-lobed.—Hook. Sp. Fil. ii. 140; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 152. Allosorus calo- 
melanos, Presl; Bot. Mag. t. 4769. Pteris calomelanos, Swartz, Syn. Fil. 106; Kunze, 
in Linnæa, x. 525 ; Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 22. P. hastata, Thunb. Fl. Cap. 733, 
not of Swartz. 
North-west Himalaya, Royle; below Almora, alt. 4000 feet, Strachey & Winterbottom ; 
Tikri in Sirmoor, alt. 5000-6000 feet, Edgeworth.—Distrib. Abyssinia to Cape of 
Good Hope. 
Only 2 sheets of this from India at Kew. Sir W. J. Hooker expresses great surprise. 
that Kunze supposed this species a Péeris rather than a Pellea; but I can no better 
than Col. Beddome see why it is not a Pteris. 
20. PTERIS, Linn. 
Sect. I. Hupteris. Veins all free. Stipes tufted. Involuere single. 
* Frond 1-pinnate ; pinne simple, none of the lower divided or pinnatifid. 
1. P. LONGIFOLIA, Linn. Sp. Pl. 1531; Wall. Cat. 111; Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 15 ; Hook. 
Sp. Fil. ii. 157; Carr. in Fl. Viti. 348; Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 33; Milde, Fil. 
Europ. 18; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 153; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 730. P. vittata, 
Linn.; Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. Fil. 207. P. diversifolia, Swartz, Syn. Fil. 96, 288. 
P. costata, Bory ; Blume, Enum. Pl. Jay. Fil. 208; Hk. & Arn. Bot. Beechey's Voy. 
t. 51. P. acuminatissima, Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. Fil. 208. P. amplectens, Wall. 
Cat. 112. P. amplexicaulis, Roxb. in Cale. Journ. Nat. Hist. iv. 505, 
From the Punjab to Assam and Chittagong, alt. 0-5000 feet ; general and abundant.— 
Distrib. Throughout India and Malaya, and the tropical and warm temperate regions of 
the whole world. i 
Perhaps the commonest fern of North India, extending over the plains to every village. 
There is no example in the Herbarium west of Chumba, but I believe it extends west. 
— The scales on the stipe are light-chestnut-coloured, lanceolate and linear, passing into 
linear hispid hairs, often permanent, and sometimes extending throughout the main and 
partial rhachises.—W hat Roxburgh's P. vittata (in Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. iv. 504) can 
be, unless it is a bad description of P. longifolia (as Griffith there maintains), I cannot 
guess, Roxburgh’s figure (among the Kew drawings) shows a stout extensively creeping 
