MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 528 
**** Frond 2-3-pinnate, 3-A-pinnatifid, small or medium-sized ; involucre persistent 
(N. sparsum and others sometimes large). 
18. N. prom, Desv.; Hook. Brit. Ferns, t. 16, Sp. Fil. m 120; Hk. & Baker, Syn. 
Fil 275. N. pallidum, Bory, Fl. Peloponn. 67, t. 38. Aspidium rigidum, Swartz ; 
Schk. Krypt. Gew. t. 38; Engl. Bot. Suppl. t. 2724; Milde, Fil. Europ. 126. 
North-west Himalaya, alt. 6000-8000 feet; from Kashmir to Kumaon, frequent.— 
Distrib. Cabul, Caucasus, Europe. California ? 
. lattempt no diagnosis in words to separate this fern from N. spinulosum and N. 
Filiz- Mas, nor do i express any opinion whether it is a good species. I merely say that 
numerous Indian specimens coincide so closely with English and South-European 
authentic examples (and with the pictures cited), that I cannot detect the slightest 
difference. Some of the Indian examples exhibit the whitened appearance of N. palli- 
dum, Bory; and Sir W. J. Hooker has written that name on one Indian example. Some 
forms included by me under N. Piliz-Mas var. 2. normalis above become 2-pinnate, and 
I can draw no line between them (Khasi examples) and N. rigidum. 
19. N. nEMoTUM, Hook. Brit. Ferns, t. 22. W. spinulosum, Desv. var. y, Hk. & Baker, 
Syn. Fil. 275. A. remotum, A. Braun; Mett Fil Hort. Lips. 93; Milde, Fil. 
Europ. 125. A. eburneum, Wall. Cat. 389. Lastrea spinulosa, Bedd. Ferns Brit. 
Ind. t. 336. 
Kashmir to Nepaul, alt. 6000-9000 feet; frequent.—Distrib. Northern and Alpine 
Europe, Asia and America. 
- The typical plant figured by Sir W. J. Hooker is frequent in the West Himalaya ; 
and there are others, slightly different in the cutting, marked by Mettenius Aspidiwm 
rigidum, Swartz, var. australis. - These plants are usually named in Indian collections 
** Lastrea elongata”; I do not see that they are at all like the true L. elongata of Hk. 
& Grev., and they are easily separable from N. Filiz-Mas var. marginata, Wall. 
Var. Chanterie, Moore, MS. Ultimate pinnz short-oblong, standing apart a distance 
equalling 3 their own breadth. 
 Sikkim, Lachen, alt. 11,000 feet; Sir J. D. Hooker.—Moore's specimen from the 
Chelsea Garden might, so far as I can see, have been cut from the same rootstock as 
He Sikkim frond: there is no other in the Kew bundles like it. 
20. N. SPARSUM, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nep. 6. Rhizome short, densely covered with lanceolate- 
linear reddish or yellow pales; stipe with scattered ovate yellowish caducous pales ; 
main rhachis glabrous or nearly so; frond ovate, 2- or 3-pinnate, lowest pinnæ un- 
equal, the secondary pinnz on the lower side larger, often falcate; ultimate seg- 
ments oblong or somewhat trapezoidal, crenulate coarsely, hardly serrate, texture 
coriaceous ; sori large.—H.k. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 276. N. purpurascens, Hook. Sp. 
-Fil iv. 132, t. 262. Aspidium purpurascens, Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. Fil. 169. A. 
< densum, Wall. Cat. 390; Mett. Farngatt. Pheg. & Asp. 65. 4. Weigleanum, 
