588 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON THE FERNS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 
From Nepaul to Bhotan, ait. 5000-8000 feet ; frequent.— Distrib. South India, Ceylon, 
Java, Polynesia. 
After all the explanations of Sir W. J. Hooker in Bot. Mag. t. 5340, the fact remains 
that this plant is named B. subcarnosmm in Wallich's own type set, and that it was 
distributed by him under the same name. 
3. B. VIRGINIANUM, Swartz, Syn. Fil. 171. Barren segment sessile, 3—4-pinnatifid, 
margin serrate or coarsely dentate.—Schk. Krypt. Gew. t. 156; Hook. Garden 
Ferns, t. 29; Bedd. Ferns South. Ind. t. 67; Hk. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 448. ` D Jong, 
ginosum, Wall. Cat. 48; Hk. & Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 79; Milde, Monog. Botrych. 113- 
117, Fil Europ. 205. Osmunda virginiana, Linn. Sp. Pl. 1519. 
Himalaya, alt. 5000-8000 feet; from Kumaon to Bhotan, common. Khasia, alt. 
4000-6000 feet, very common.—Distrib. South India, Ceylon, Europe to Japan; America, - 
very widespread. 
Milde (Monogr. Botrych. & Fil. Europ. 191-209) divides Botrychium into two main 
sections, viz.:— 
(1) Cells of the — gesit, 
(2) Cells of the epidermis flexuose, secondary pinnz of the lowest pair of n 
pinne anadromous. 
The second section contains B. virginianum (the American type plant) only ; the first 
section comprises, among other species, B. lanuginosum, Wall., which Milde holds to be 
a good species, and which, besides the difference in the epidermis-cells, is said to have ` 
catadromous secondary pinnz on the lowest pair of pinnze. 
All the Indian material that I have seems one species, and has the epidermis-cells 
straight, differing thus from the typical American 4. virginianum, which has a different 
texture (perhaps consequently).—I can make very little of the subsidiary distinction. It 
may be useful to explain that the lowest primary pinnz are often twisted in drying, but 
that the secondary pinn:e on their lower margin are usually more developed than on ther — 
upper.—These secondary pinnz are said to be catadromous when the secondary pinna ` 
nearest the main rhachis is on the lower margin of the primary pinnz, anadromous when ` 
the secondary pinna nearest the main rhachis is on the upper margin of the primary — 
pinne. In the Indian B. lanuginosum the secondary pinnz have a strong tendency to ` 
be catadromous, in the American 4. virginianum to be anadromous: but in the Indian 
plant the lowest secondary pinne are often nearly opposite ; sometimes they are slightly : E 
anadromous; and in one of my specimens the lowest pinna on one side has the secondary ` ` 
pinnz anadromous; the lowest pinna on the other side has them catadromous. Milde ` E 
finds in the Himalaya both B. virginianum and B. lanuginosum, which he reckons very- A 
distinet species. I certainly think that the Himalayan material is all one species 
whether it can be separated from A, virginianum specifically is a much more difficult 
question. H: : 
