528 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 
^ Himalaya, from Gurwhal to Bhotan, alt. 4000-8000 feet, common. Khasia, alt. 
4000-5000 feet, frequent.—Distrib. South India, Ceylon, Malay Peninsula, Bourbon, 
Java, China. 
Very variable in size; usually large, the pinnee 2 feet long, thin in texture, weak 
from the remoteness of the secondary pinns. Small fronds (in full fruit) are only 8 in. 
long, and resemble N. flaccidum (i.e. the large variety of N. gracilescens) so exactly 
that I ean only distinguish them by the absence of the wer needle-like hairs from 
the rhachises of the secondary pinne. 
Var. microstegioides. Segments of the secondary pinne oblong, subentire or crenate, 
standing close together, the sinus between each two very acute. ! 
Over the same Himalayan and Khasi area as N. Boryanum type. The extreme form 
differs a good deal from N. Boryanum type; but there are many intermediates. 
30. N. TENERICAULE, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 142, quoad sp. Wallich. Rootstock short; 
stipe glabrous, smooth, except a few soft linear-subulate pales near the base; main 
rhachis beneath round, firm, glabrous, smooth, shining, straw-coloured or almost 
chestnut; primary rhachises beneath glabrous, smooth, or upwards with patent 
needle-like white hairs, never paleaceous nor scabrid; involucre always present, 
but early deciduous.—Polypodium tenericaule, Wall. Cat. 335. Lastrea flaccida, 
Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 99. L. setigera, Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. Suppl. p. 18, 
not Cheilanthes setigera, Blume. Polypodium Russelianum, Wall. Cat. 7077. 
Base of the Himalaya, alt. 0-4000 feet, from Nepaul to Assam and East Bengal, 
very common, extending some way into the plains as to Sylhet station. Distrib. South ` 
India, Ceylon, Burma, Malaya, China, Australia, Polynesia. 
A fern exceedingly constant to the above character. The Kew bundle of N. seti- 
gerum, Baker, includes Wallich's Polypodium tenericaule, Wallich’s P. ornatum, Rox- 
burgh’s P. punctatum, Thunb., and A. uliginosum, Kunze (probably = Cheilanthes setigera, 
Blume). Of these, P. ornatum and P. punctatum belong to the genus Polypodium, and 
are, moreover, distinguishable at a glance by their hispid or glandulose main rhachis. The 
descriptions of Sir W. J. Hooker, Mr. Baker, and Mr. Bentham (in Fl. Austral. vii. 759) 
are drawn to include these widely-separated plants; and the synonymy of ss. 
Luerssen, and others is not worth disentangling. 
The plant figured by Sir W. J. Hooker (Sp. Fil. iv. t. 269) is "s -siüginiosum, Mett., 
which is Polypodium ornatum, Wall.; whether it is the true A. uliginosum, Kunze, may 
be still open to question. Mr. Baker remarks (in Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 285) that 
Capt. Beddome considers Polypodium ornatum, Wall., distinct from Nephr. setigerum. 
I may add that W. S. Atkinson, J. Scott, and Major Henderson agree with Capt. Bed- 
dome. One is a Polypodium, very large, the fronds attaining even 20 feet in- length, 
the main rhachis muricate-hispid; the other is a Nephrodium, moderate-sized or pon 
5 EN main rhachis glabrous. 
— [Nephrodium platypus, Hook. Sp. Pil, iy. 149, is stats by Beer in Hk. & Baker, 
Syn. Fil 286, to grow in Khasia; but there is no example thence now in the Kew 
bundle. ` As to Lobb's Moulmein p TE. ue Bedd. as .Lasírea Platypus, 
