MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 513 
beneath glabrous or nearly so.—Aspidium cuspidatum, Mett. Farngatt. Pheg. & Asp. 
92. Polypodium elongatum, Wall. Cat. 309; Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 234. Lastrea 
elongata, Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 118. 
Khasia, alt. 3000—4000 feet; not rare near Shillong, as at the Bishop's Falls, the Bor 
Pani,Pomrang. Nepaul, Wallich.—Distrib. Ceylon ? 
Very red-legged. Rhizome (I believe) wide-creeping ; but I omitted either to make a 
note or to collect an example showing it.—As to the distribution, there is no doubt that 
the Kew sheet inscribed * Ceylon, Gardner, No. 1256 dis” is N. cuspidatum true; but 
nobody else can find the plant in Ceylon, and the Ceylon collectors doubt whether 
Gardner got it there: see G. W. Cat. Ferns Ceylon, p. 9, sub Polyp. acrostichoides. The 
same doubt exists as to Wallich's locality; nobody else can find the fern in the Himalaya, 
and, in several instances, it is certain that Wallich mixed his Khasi and Himalayan 
specimens (sometimes his Tenasserim and Kumaon specimens) before distributing.—As to 
the name; the oldest specific name is elongatum ; but there is a very different fern well 
known as N. elongatum, Swartz or Hk. & Grev., and though this is hardly now admitted 
as a distinct species, it would be inconvenient to alter back A. cuspidatum. 
2. N. niRTIPES, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 115, t. 249. Main rhachis with long narrow scales, 
often black; rhachis of the pinne beneath squamose ; sori not carried into the lobes 
when the primary pinne are pinnatifid; involucre fugacious.—Hk. & Baker, Syn. 
Fil 261. <Aspidium hirtipes, Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. Fil. 148. — 4. atratum, Wall. 
Cat. 380; Kunze in Linnea, xxiv. 279; Mett. Farngatt. Pheg. & Asp. 53. Lastrea 
hirtipes, Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 96. 
Himalaya, alt. 5000-9000 feet; from Nepaul to Bhotan, common. Khasia, alt. 4000- 
6000 feet ; common.—Distrib. Burma, Malaya, Polynesia, South India, and Ceylon. 
** Frond 1-pinnate; pinne lobed more than halfway to the midrib (but some Jorms here 
2 included, especially N. Filix-Mas, var. odontoloma and cochleatum, are 2-3-pinnate). 
+ Veins in the lobes of the pinne mostly simple (but forked veins occur in N. gracilescens, 
sericeum, and occasionally elsewhere). 
3. N. GRACILESCENS, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 93. Rhizome shortly creeping or tufted; stipe 
long, slender, without auricles; frond narrowly oblong-lanceolate, lowest pinne 
little shorter, often deflexed ; main rhachis and rhachis of the pinne above pilose; 
pinne cut down nearly to the midrib; lobes narrow-oblong, obtuse, little falcate, 
not very oblique to the midrib, nor much narrower upwards; veins distant, the two 
lowest terminating above the sinus; sori small, usually near the margin, often 
plainly visible from above owing to the very thin texture of the frond; involucres 
small, fugacious, minutely pilose or nearly glabrous —Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 262. 
N. puberulum, Baker in Trimen, Journ. Bot. 1875, 201. N. flaccidum, Hook. Sp. 
Fil. iv. 133, t. 203; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 274. Aspidiwm gracilescens and flaccidum, 
Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. Fil. 155,161. 4. glanduligerum, Kunze; Mett. Farngatt. 
Aa 2 
