494. MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 
the shining coriaceous texture; it is also separated from A. nigripes and A. macrocarpum | 
by the small Cystopteroid involucre. 
The fig. of Beddome exactly represents Wallich's original P. game which was 
gathered in Khasia, where Sir J. D. Hooker and myself have gathered the same form, 
called Asplenium stramineum by J.Smith; but I have never in any variety of oxyphyllum 
found the involucres so long and large as in Beddome’s picture. The form with scimitar- 
shaped secondary pinnz is perhaps the most common, and is Polypodium drepanopterum, 
Kunze, but is not the var. figured by Mett. In over-ripe fruit it is hardly possible to 
separate 4. oxyphyllum from Lastrea sparsa and its neighbours: as regards the most 
critical Khasia form, the Lastrea has usually a much broader frond, often subtriangular, 
while the Athyrium is oblong-lanceolate. The alpine forms are small, but otherwise 
agree closely with the type, which contains two forms, viz. :— 
1. oxyphyllum, Hook. ` Involucre Cystopteroid, some lateral, some across the vein when 
young, evanescent, but still usually to be discovered till the fruit is quite ripe; 
sori small, not nearly covering the pinne when ripe. 
2. Kulhaitense, W. S. Atkinson. Involucre none, the sorus first appearing as a point 
over which no scale is discoverable with the microscope; sori increasing and 
becoming subglobose, ultimately often covering the whole surface of the pinne, or 
nearly so.—This has been kept separate, and distributed under a separate name, and 
it may not be a worse species than some of the Polypodium multilineatum set; but 
Col. Beddome considers it merely an exinvolucrate variety of A. oxyphyllum, which 
view the exact conformity of the two species in every other particular and in habitat 
confirms. 
[A. aspidioides, Schlecht., is stated by Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. Suppl. p. 12, to be 
* general" in India; but Mr. Baker does not admit it north of the Nilgherries, and ` 
I concur in his sorting.] : 
36. A. BREVISORUM, Wall. Cat. 220, not of Mett. Frond large, oblong-lanceolate, 
2-pinnate or 3-pinnate, the ultimate pinne in either case narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 
with an entire centre, the margin coarsely serrate, hardly pinnatifid ; sori very long.— 
Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 229 ; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 228. Athyrium brevisorum, J. Smith ; 
Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 241. 
Mishmee, Griffith.—Distrib. Taongdong Mts. near Ava, Wallich. The Natal example 
is (mihi) not the Indian species: from the Sandwich Islands I find no example: 
Easily recognized by the linear sori, which are much longer than in any other Indian 
Athyrium. Wallich’s example is 2-pinnate, Griffith’s 3-pinnate, one pinna of Griffith's 
closely resembling the whole frond of Vieni 
37. A. FIMBRIATUM, Hook. Sp. Fil iii. 234. Stipe usually with lanceolate setaceous 
yellow or brown scales; frond large, oblong-lanceolate, 3-4-pinnate, not attenuated ` ` 
at the base ; pinn usually faleate; involucres curved or horseshoe-shaped, sub- ` 
. persistent.—Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 229. Athyrium fimbriatum, Bedd. ‘Ferns A x 
o Ind.t. d Asin feiriciom, Wall. Cat. 339. uet. 
