468 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN. INDIA. 
serrated at their barren apices. The distribution is curious: the station of the Philip. 
pines, formerly attributed to this fern, is an error, that of Ava very doubtful. There 
are a few looped veins in some of the Himalayan examples, but very few. 
13. P. noxerPzs, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 15, fide Baker. Frond subpedately divided into 
7-5-3 pinne ; gd pinnate; secondary pinnz pinnatifid nearly to the rhachis; 
segments j by A in.; apex obtuse, erenate-serrate.—Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 161, 
P. pellucens, rosa Recens. Gen. Dier. 48; Hook. Sp. Fil. ii. 191; Bedd. Ferns 
South. Ind. t. 32. .P. Zollingeri, Mett.; Miq. in Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat. iv. 97. 
P. brevisora, Baker, in Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 162. Hypolepis pteridioides, Hook. 
2nd Cent. Ferns, t. 59. 
. Sikkim, Bhotan, Khasia ; alt. 1000—5000 feet, frequent.—Distrib. Nilgherries, Ceylon, 
Pegu; seattered through Malaya, Guinea coast, Guatemala. 
The fully-developed form of this with 5 (rarely 7) main divisions of the frond is easily 
distinguished from all the other Indian Zwpteris. The lower pinne of the central pinna 
are (in the larger examples) imperfectly pinnate, with descending segments on the 
lower margins. Fragments of P. longipes are frequently mistaken for P. quadriaurita ; 
their texture, however, is more shining, the veins much wider apart, the apex of the 
segments more setrate than in P. quadriawrita. The Guatemala plant might have ` ` 
been gathered i in Sikkim, as might the examples of P brevisora, which Mr. Baker hos ` ` 
himself lately reduced in the Herbarium to P. longipes.-—As regards the name P. lon- 
gipes, from Don's description and the history of his plant, I should have thought P. longipes, 
Don, to have been P. Wallichiana ; but as I do not possess the authentic example of. — 
Don for comparison I follow Mr. Baker. Blume (Enum. Pl. Jay. Fil. 212), has evidently : e 
otherwise understood P. longipes, Don. D 
Sect. II. Pesia. Veins all free. Stipes distant, from a EE rhizome. 
Involucre double. 
14. P. AQUILINA, Linn. Sp. Pl. 1533, including P. caudata, Linn., same place; Hook. 
Sp. Fil. ii. 196 ; Hook. Brit. Ferns, t. 38; Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 42; Milde,  — 
Fil Europ. 45 ; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 162; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 731. Pit ` 
gera, Wall. Cat. 103. Pt. lanuginosa, Wall. Cat. 98. Pt. densa, Wall. Cat. 99. 2 
Pt. firma, Wall. Cat. 100. Pt. recurvata, Wall. Cat. 118. Pt. Wightiana, Wall. Cat. — 
2178. P. esculenta, lanigera, and revoluta, Blume, Enum. Pl.Jav. Fl, 214. | - 
From Kashmir to Assam and Khasia; alt. 2000-8000 feet ; common.—Distrib. Deccan : 
and Ceylon, Malaya. The whole world except the Arctic zones and temperate South E 
America. e 
` All the North-Indian examples belong to the var. lanuginosa, with ultimate segments : 
approximate oblong, yellow-hairy beneath. Wallich’s P. lorigera is a trifling variety, 
in which the ment segments in places are confluent. The true var. esculenta, with ` 
distant linear elongate segments (P. semi-hastata, Wall. Cat. _— first ute . 
Moulmein, and boit common thence southwards. : : 
