MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 535 
361, partly, not as to type sheet; Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. Suppl. 15, t. 366. 4. mem- 
branifolium, Mett. Farngatt. Pheg. & Asp. 113. 
Plain of Eastern Bengal, extending into Assam, Cachar, Chittagong ; ascending the 
hills in Khasia and Sikkim to 3000 feet alt., abundant.——Distrib. Burma, Malay 
Peninsula. 
A very common fern, with the habit of Sagenia cicutaria ; easily recognized by the 
persistent black scales on the lower half of the stipe. The sori are aspidioid rather than 
nephrodioid, as Col. Beddome shows. But in rearranging the species of Aspidium with 
Nephrodium (as those genera are understood by Mr. Baker), I should rely rather on the 
venation than on the involucre. The type sheet of Aspidium fuscipes, Wall. Cat. 361, 
is Nephrodiwm sagenioides, Baker. Our species has been supposed to be a great 
stumbling-block to those systematists who depend on venation as the character for a 
primary division of the genus; but when separated (as it certainly should be) from 
N. ingens, dissectum, and sagenioides, I do not see that it should be. In its non- 
dimorphic form (figured by Hooker and Beddome) the fronds have some inarching 
veins: in its dimorphic forms the barren frond always shows some inarching veins. 
This fern varies greatly in cutting. The following are two among many striking 
forms of it :— 
Var. typica. Fertile and barren fronds similar, lanceolate, 3-6 in. long, scarcely 1-pin- 
nate, or with 1 pair of free pinne; texture (when alive) white, glistening, mem- 
branous, often very hairy. (Pl. LXXV. fig. A.) 
Tipperah and Chittagong, in densely jungled valleys, common. 
Var. dimorpha. Fertile and barren fronds very unlike, 18 by 12 in. or often more, 2-pin- 
nate, 3-pinnatifid ; barren frond full green, with many inarching veins; fertile frond 
more membranous, veins all free. (Pl. LXXV. figs. B, C.) 
Throughout East Bengal.—Varieties between this and Col. Beddome's type are 
common. My very dimorphic examples have been more than once marked by Col. 
Beddome as “ Sagenia, nov. sp.;" but I believe he now regards them as only a form 
of N. fuscipes.—Throughout Sagenia and Pleocnemia the fertile portions of the frond are 
often more or less contracted, and when much contracted show few (or no) inarching 
veins. 
43. N. LEUZEANUM, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 61. Stipe rusty pubescent or shortly hirsute, 
_ without scales; frond 1—4 feet, 2-pinnate, 3-pinnatifid; ultimate segments ovate, 
rounded, entire or denticulate, usually with a tooth in the sinus at their base; sori 
mixed with yellow glandular hairs; involucre fugacious.—Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 
295. Aspidium Luzeanum, Kunze; Mett. Farngatt. Pheg. & Asp. 116, Fil. Hort. 
Lips. t. 22. figs. 8, 9. 4. conjugatum, Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. Fil. 169. Pleoenemia 
Leuzeana, Presl; Hk. & Bauer, Gen. Fil. t. 97; Carr. in Fl. Viti. 361; Bedd. 
Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 184. P. javanica, Presl, Epimel. Bot. 50. Polypodium Leuzeanum, 
Gaud. in Freycinet, Voy. Bot. t. 6. P. pubigerum, Wall. Cat. 7078. 
| Base of the hills in North and East Bengal, alt. 0-2000 feet ; Sikkim, Assam, Cachar, 
SECOND SERIES.—BOTANY, VOL. I. 4D 
