.MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 563 
Var. 1. Thunbergii. Fronds small, trilobate and simple. 
Sikkim and Bhotan, alt. 7000—10,000 feet, frequent. Khasia, alt. 5000-6000 feet, 
frequent.—Distrib. China, Japan. pe 
Some of my Darjeeling fronds, including the stipes, are 12 in. long, entire, in full 
fruit; others are exactly P.’trifidum, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nep.3: they are fronds from young 
rhizomes of the next variety. E 
Var. 2. oxyloba, (sp.) Wall. Cat. 294. Fronds pinnatifid, often attaining 15 in.—Mett. 
Farngatt. Polypod. 106; Hook. Sp. Fil. TT. P. trifidum, Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 
. 363. P. propinquum, Wall. Cat. 298, partly. Pleopeltis oxyloba and malacodon, 
= Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. tt. 175, 387. | 
Himalaya; from Gurwhal to Bhotan, alt. 3000-8000 feet, common.  Khasia, alt. 
2000—6000 feet ; common.—Distrib. South India, Ceylon. 
This fern is known easily from the succeeding allied species by its entire edge, which 
is not even minutely serrulate. The rhizome also is shorter and thicker than that of 
P. ebenipes. The secondary venation is generally obscure, but in autumn- and winter- 
gathered examples often conspicuous: such have been marked P. Dodgsoni, ? nov. sp., 
in Kew Herb. 
56. P. CYRTOLOBUM, J. Smith. Rhizome rather slender, creeping somewhat exten- 
sively, often glaucous; scales peltately adfixed, with a scarious brown margin and 
prolonged lanceolate spreading black point ; stipe long, glabrous, base of the main 
rhachis beneath often with a few soft scales; frond 6-15 in., lanceolate, narrowed 
into the stipe, the pinne all much drawn upwards, so that the frond is narrow, the 
last lobe exceedingly long; margin minutely serrate, the teeth not mucronate.— 
Pleopeltis Stewartii, Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 2nd ed. 513, not of Bedd. (Pl. LXXXIII.) 
Nepaul to Bhotan, alt. 9000-12,000 feet, very common. 
A very uniform species, pendent from trees, whence the fronds have a peculiarly 
tapering appearance. Wallich collected it, and marked it “ an P. propinqui, var. ?” 
57. P. SrEwAnTIL,, C. B. Clarke. Rhizome rather slender, creeping somewhat exten- 
sively; scales lax, soft, lanceolate-linear, almost hair-pointed, yellow-brown; stipe 
and main rhachis beneath glabrous; lowest pinnze deflexed, somewhat broad at the 
base; margin minutely serrulate, teeth not mucronate.—Pleopeltis Stewartii, Bedd. 
Ferns Brit. Ind. t. 204, not of Baker. 
Gurwhal, Stewart (fide Bedd.) ; Pathankori, alt. 10,500 feet, Strachey & Winterbottom. 
Sikkim, alt. 12,000-13,000 feet; Lachen, Sir J. D. Hooker. | 
In venation, sori, texture, margin, and outline this fern closely resembles P. ebenipes, 
and I had always supposed it a var. of P. ebenipes, and that P. cyrtolobum (which I have 
collected so largely) was P. Stewartii. Apart from the scales of the rhizome and its 
glabrousness, the present fern (Szewartii, Bedd.) differs considerably from P. cyrtolobum 
in its very divaricate lobes spreading straight stellately in every direction; whereas in 
P. cyrtolobum the lobes are curved, all much bending upwards. Strachey and Winter- 
