MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 533 
39. N.PAnAsITICUM, C. B. Clarke. Rhizome tufted or very shortly creeping; stipe and 
main rhachis beneath pubescent, shortly hairy or glabrous, not with long hairs, 
with few or no pale ; frond oblong-lanceolate, lowest pinnse usually narrower and 
remote, often more or less pilose on both surfaces, or glabrous beneath, except on 
the nerves; pinnz cut down j-$ the way to the midrib into oblong subobtuse 
nearly entire lobes, lowest pair of veins (rarely 1 superior pair) uniting ; involucres 
hairy or glabrous, deciduous.—J. molle, Desv.; Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 67; Bedd. 
Ferns South. Ind. t. 84; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 293. VN. nymphale, Carr. in Fl. 
Viti. 363. Aspidiwm parasiticum, Swartz; Wall. Cat. 7082; Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. 
Fil 158. .4. molle, Swartz ; Milde, Fil. Europ. 111; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 756. 
A. canescens, Wall. Cat. 864. A. tectum, Wall. Cat. 394. 4. canum, Wall. Cat. 
387, partly. A. solutum, Wall. Cat. 350. Polypodium parasiticum, Linn. Sp. Pl. 
1551. P. molle, Jacq. Ic. Pl. Rar. t. 640. P. molliusculum, Wall. Cat. 332. 
P. nemorale, Wall. Cat. 317. 
Throughout India, abundant; ascending the mountains to 5000 feet alt.—Distrib. 
In tropical and warm temperate regions, almost throughout the globe: one of the most 
universal and plentiful of ferns. 
Very little variable considering the extensive range. "The var. didyomsorum, Parish ; 
Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 200; has the rhachis long, patently hairy, and the sori nearly 
confined to the centre of the pinnæ. The authentic example I have of this does not 
show the rhizome; but our didymosorous Sikkim Nephrodiwm is a var. of N. extensum 
above, which see. 
OBS multijuga. Pinnæ very close together, the lowest deflexed, not remote, nor much 
shorter than those above.—Aspidium multijugum, Wall. Cat. 348, not Nephrodium 
multijugum, Baker. 
Penang, Wallich. Sikkim, in a subtropical valley, W. S. Atkinson.—Fronds large 
and broad. : 
Var. aurea. Stipes closely tufted, grey-pubescent, fertile much longer than the barren ; 
frond truncate at the base, lowest pair of pinnæ nearly as long as any above them; 
pinne often contracted near the base, cut down $ of the way to the midrib; 
under surface and involueres with minute bright aureous hairs. 
g . Sikkim and Bhotan; alt. 1000-4000 feet, frequent, C. B. Clarke, Assam, Griffith. 
—J have always regarded this fern as specifically separable from N. parasiticum, which 
does not show the bright aureous hairs glistening on the under surface. But Major 
Henderson thinks it undesirable to increase the number of species of Nephrodium very 
close to N. parasiticum. 
40. N. CRINIPES, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 71. Large; stipe and main rhachis with many 
lanceolate-linear thin brown scales; pinnæ cut down ł-2 the way to the midrib 
into broad-oblong hardly acute lobes; veinlets and rhachises beneath minutely 
~ puberulo-pubescent, otherwise glabrous.—Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 263; Hk. & 
Baker, Syn. Fil. 294. 
