538 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 
** Sori in two rows between the principal nerves. 
49. N. vanroLosuM, Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 298. Stipes tufted, pubescent, only near the 
base paleaceous; fronds more or less dimorphous; the fertile frond on a longer 
stipe, more divided, with narrower segments, somewhat more membranous, less 
hairy; lowest pair of pinne furcate, sometimes pinnate; sori medium-sized or 
rather large, usually terminal on veinlets included within looped veins; involucres 
aspidioid.— 4spidium variolosum, Wall. Cat. 379 ; Hook. Sp. Fil.iv. 51; Bedd. Ferns 
Brit. Ind. t. 365, not t. 170. A. Zollingerianum, Herb. Kew.; Bedd. Ferns Brit. 
Ind. t. 251, ?of Kunze. 
East Bengal Plain, abundant; extending from Assam to Chittagong.—Distrib. Burma, 
Malay Peninsula. 
Helfer's Tenasserim example, No. 362, has been marked for Kew by Mettenius's hand 
Aspidium Zollingerianum, Kunze: it is identical with Wallich's type 4. variolosum, 
No. 379, which represents the distinctly dimorphic state of the plant. It is possible that 
the Java A. Zollingerianum, Kunze, is something different, and that Mettenius has 
made a mistake. However that may be, I am strongly of opinion that all the East 
Bengal and Pegu specimens are but one species, varying a good deal (as does N. fuscipes) 
in the degree of difference between the fertile and barren fronds.—Baker describes the 
rhizome as creeping ; so it is, and so is the rhizomein all ferns. In X. varioloswm there 
are usually 4-6 stipes within an inch of length of the rhizome: the rhizome may 
creep 3-6 in., but in the same year only throws up stipes at one point just behind the 
growing end. The real distinction between creeping and tufted ferns is between this 
state and that in N. rostratum (No. 45), where the fronds over many square yards all 
spring from one rhizome, the stipes are distant; the rhizome creeps deeply, the growing 
point not being above the surface of the ground. 
50. N. Wien, C. B. Clarke. Stipe and main rhachis glabrous or nearly so; fronds 
l-pinnate, large, distinctly dimorphous ; fertile pinnz rarely half as wide as the 
barren ; lowest pinnæ lanceolate, entire, narrowed at the base N. siifolium, Hk. & 
Baker, Syn. Fil. 299 partly. (Pl LXXVI.) 
Bhotan, Griffith.—Distrib. Mts. of South India. 
Considered as a var. of 4. polymorphum by Bedd. Ferns Brit. Ind. Beat p.14. The 
sori are strictly and invariably biserial between the main nerves, as insisted on by 
Mr. Baker, and this involves a complex but radical difference in the venation. N. poly- 
 morphwum is never distinctly dimorphic as N. Wightit alwaysis; also N. polymorphum has 
the lowest pinne usually forked, or at least rounded subauriculate at the base, often < 
crenate or lobed; in short, I think with Mr. Baker that V.Wightit and N. polymorphum 
differ as much as any two of the section Sagenia.— Aspidium siifolium, Mett. inAnn. Mus. 
Lugd. Bat. i. 237,is A. Teijsmannianum, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 41, t. 236, andis no doubt the 
original Polypodium siifolium, Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 196. Mettenius has marked - very poor 
— from the upper porn) of N. "m (collected. A EE near Courtallum) 
