MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 465 
| (P. Dalhousie, Hook., is placed in North India (as well as Penang) by Col. Beddome 
in Ferns Brit. Ind. Suppl. p. 8; but there are no examples thence at Kew, nor have I 
ever heard of its being found in North India. | | 
8. P. QUADRIAURITA, Retz. Obs. vi. 38. Stipe naked upwards, or minutely scabrid 
pubescent ; frond lanceolate or ovate-laceolate, with 3-8 subopposite pairs of pinne ; 
pinne narrowly oblong, acuminate or cordate, cut down nearly to the rhachis into 
numerous narrowly oblong approximate segments 3 by $ in. ; rhachis above glabrous 
or setigerous ; lowest pair of pinnæ (and sometimes several superior pairs) bipartite, 
rarely simple, sometimes with 2—4 secondary pinn descending from their lower side. 
—Roxh. in Cale. Journ. Nat. Hist. iv. 507; Hook. Sp. Fil. ii. 179, tt. 135 a, 1843; 
Carr. in Fl. Viti. 349; Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 31, Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 202; 
Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil 158; Benth. Fl. Austral vii. 731. P. nemoralis, Hk. & 
Bauer, Gen. Fil. t. 644; Wall. Cat. 106, partly perhaps of Willd. P. aspericaulis, 
Wall. Cat. 107; Agardh, Recens. Gen. Pter. 22. P. pectinata, Don, Prodr. Fl. 
Nepal. 15. P. pyrophylla, Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. Fil. 212; Agardh, Recens. 
Gen. Pter. 30. P. spinescens, Presl; Agardh, Recens. Gen. Dier, 30. P. sub- 
quinata, Wall. Cat. 104; Agardh, Recens. Gen. Pter. 21. 
From the Punjab to Assam and Chittagong; alt. 0-7000 feet, very common, but not 
found far from the hills.—Distrib. Deccan, Ceylon, Malay Peninsula, and the tropical 
and subtropical regions of the world. 
The above diagnosis is expanded to include what are here considered trifling varieties 
of this abundant fern. The number of pinnz is variable. P. subquinata, Wall., with 
7-5 pinne, is not worthy a separate name. Several varieties, as well as the type and 
other allied species, have bristles sometimes on the upper surface of the rhachis; and 
consequently different forms have been figured by different authors as the species or 
variety setigera. ` The pinne in the type species have sometimes entire tails 2-3 in.; 
and various less markedly caudate forms have been elevated into species. The texture 
eminently varies; P. aspericaulis, Wall., is a rigid species, coriaceous, shining, crisped 
when dry, often high red in the rhachis and nerves; other forms are thin membranous, 
others greenly herbaceous. The pinne are always deeply cut; when very deeply the 
. lowest veins reach the margin above the sinus; when less deeply, at the sinus. Agardh 
treated this as an absolute distinction in founding species ; but it cannot be worked with 
large material except as an auxiliary character. The ultimate segments are usually at 
the vertex obtuse subentire; sometimes, however, they are acute, sometimes spinulose- 
mucronate, very rarely serrate (as in P. longipes, Don, pieces of which are sometimes taken 
for P. quadriaurita): the segments in the type form are exactly narrow-oblong, slightly 
faleate; sometimes they are narrowed upwards; they are rarely (perhaps never) broader 
upwards or acuminate. The sori are very variable in their extent: Mr. Baker says they 
are usually continuous along the whole margin of the segment; but (as to the North 
Indian plants) I should say the sori are generally partial, and but rarely continued to 
the apex of the segments. The blotched and 3-coloured (green, white, and rose-purple) 
forms are not rare in the jungles; but the colours are generally incipient “pd not as in 
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