496 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 
but the involucre is totally different as from all forms of 4. australe, Brack. A. pro- 
cerum is perhaps nearest 4. multicaudatum, in which the involucres are not allantodioid, 
and which has a wide-creeping root; the sori are differently placed also. "A Madeira 
form of A. umbrosum, A. Smith, has the sori allantodioid, but the cutting of tho frond is 
totally unlike that of 4. procerum. ` 
Var. Mishmica. Ultimate segments more approximate than in the typical A. procerum ; 
sori small, in two rows near the midrib of the segments. 
Mishmee, Griffith. Khasia and Sikkim, alt. 1000 feet, C. B. Clarke.—Involucre 
allantodioid, not rarely diplazioid; veins in the ultimate segments often forked. 
39. A. BELLUM, C. B. Clarke. Stipes tufted, from a caudex sometimes standing a foot 
out of the ground; stipe muricate, reddish, with long lanceolate chestnut scales at 
the base; frond large, sub-3-pinnate; primary pinne 1-2 feet; tertiary pinnæ (seg- 
ments) oblong crenate serrate, hardly pinnatifid; veins rarely forked; sori short, 
oblong, not very close to the midrib.— Aspidium marginatum, Wall. Cat. 391, partly. 
(Pl. LXIII. fig. 2.) 
Sikkim and Bhotan, alt. 1000-5000 feet, frequently collected and very many times 
seen, C. B. Clarke. Khasia, alt. 4000 feet, Cherra, Sir J. D. Hooker. 
Sir J. D. Hooker marked his specimen Gymnosphera gigantea; it has been removed 
to Asplenium by Baker without providing any name for it. The cutting and venation 
greatly resemble that of Alsophila glabra, and the sori are subquadrate ; but the invo- 
lucre bursting at the back the sori as they ripen appear in a Cyatheoid hyposorous 
involucre, which, however, is boat-shaped instead of hemispherical. The tertiary pinnze 
(though not quite free themselves) are sometimes subpinnatifid when the veins in them 
are subpinnate (as in similar cases in all ferns): these examples look different from the 
type, but I have cut them from the same caudex. 
| Subgenus VI. Diplazium. Veins free. Involueres linear or oblong, not or very ` 
slightly eurved, some placed back to back, dehiseing from their outer edge. 
* Fronds simple, entire or nearly so. 
40. A. LANCEUM, Thunb. Fl. Japon. 333; Ic. Pl. Japon. Dec. ii. t. 8. -Rootstock wiry, 
creeping, with small, linear, black scales; stipes manifest, not crowded; frond 
narrow-lanceolate or linear entire.—Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 235; Mett Farngatt. Aspl. 
161; Benth. Fl. Hongk. 451; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 229. A. subsinuatum, Wall. 
Cat. 199; Hk. & Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 27. Scolopendrium dubium, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nep. 
9. Diplazium lanceum, Presl; Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 227, not of Boryjin 
Bélanger Voy. Bot. Crypt. 37, t. iv. 
. Assam and North-east Bengal, alt. 500-5000 feet, not very common ; NODE to 
Chittagong, C. B. Clarke, and to East Nepanl, Wallich; —Distrib. agin (hints, For- 
mosa, Japan, 
Frond variable in length, but not much in breadth—from 3 by Zi in. to 12 by tis in 
