578 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA, 
Bory; Fée, Ze: Mém. Foug. 77, t. 38. fig. 2. P. neglecta, Fée, 2^ Mém. Foug. 76, 
t. 39. fig. 2. Lacaussadea montana, appendiculata, and rhizophylla, Gaud. Voy. Bonite, 
tt. 118, 119, 120. 
Round Bengal from Nepaul to Bhotan and Chittagong, near the base of the hills, very 
common, and ascending to 5000 feet alt.; most plentiful at alt. 1000—3000 feet.— 
Distrib. South India, Ceylon, Malay Peninsula and Islands to the Philippines and 
Hongkong. 
My smallest specimens have the fronds (fertile and barren) 3-4 in. long, including the 
stipes, and in full fruit; my largest barren frond collected is 44 in. long without the 
stipe, and has the stipe and main rhachis clothed most densely with ovate dull-brown 
scales. The barren pinne in the commonest form are crenate subpinnatifid, sometimes 
they are entire, sometimes deeply pinnatifid ; also pinnatifid and 2-pinnate barren fronds 
occur. The frond often is produced into a caudate extremity and roots near the extre- 
mity; this is the A. viviparum, Wall. Wallich's 4. ludens, Wall. Cat. 2685, is not the 
Ceylon A. ludens of Beddome and Thwaites, but the commonest typical form of 4. appen- 
diculatum from Sylhet Mts. The most striking variety is 
Var. Hamiltoniana, Wall. Barren pinne large, broad, subentire; fertile linear, sub- 
pinnate, so as to appear beaded. 
Chiefly in Chittagong and Malaya.—Forms in which the fertile pinnz are oblong sub- 
entire, linear, linear-pinnatifid, and bet are found on rhizomes producing barren 
fronds with pinnatifid pinne. 
Subgenus ITI. Aconiopteris. Veins uniting only to form a vein running close 
` round the margin of the frond. 
5. A. corconrum, Kaulf. Enum. Fil. 63, not of Blume. Barren fronds simple, entire, 
narrowly elliptic, tapering at both ends; veins parallel, close, simple or furcate.— 
Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 264; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 416. _Aconiopteris obtusa, Fée, 2” 
Mém. Foug. 80, t. 40. fig. 2. 
. Khasia, alt. 2500 feet ; above Shaila, C. B. Clarke.—Distrib. Sandwich and Society 
Islands. 2 
I collected once a considerable quantity of this fern, but none in fruit: it must, how- —— 
over. be either 4. gorgoneum, Kaulf., or some very closely allied species. — Rhizomes very a 
short, with ovate-lanceolate obtuse brown-red scales; stipes tufted, scarcely an inch long, — 
being usually winged nearly to the base by the decurrent frond : fronds 3-5 by 3-1} ino — — 
glabrous, with peltate flat scales sparingly scattered on the surface beneath; midrib ` ` 
strong : texture firm but diaphanous, the marginal vein more distinct and further from - 
the margin than in any example of A. gorgoneum from Polynesia. - 
Subgenus IV. Gymnopteris. Veins anastomosing bans. Barren and i d. 
fronds distinct. 
6. A. VARIABILE, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 277. Rhizome hori creeping, ;squamose, e; with 
