Si JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



DlSTKlB.— Asia : N. Lid. (Him.), Sikkirn and Bhofan ; Bengal : Chittagong and 

 plain westward, and ascending the Himalaya to 4-5000', Parasnath Mt. Rev. A. 

 Campbell ; Assam — Wallich 1829 ; all over the Province ; Nambur Forest, Mann. S. 

 2nd. : Golconda Hills, west of Vizagapatam, 2-3000', " involucre distinct 1 '' ; not on 

 Western Mts., Beddome in H. B. Burma : " very common near Moulmein, involu- 

 cre distinct ", Beddome. Fiji Isles, Seeman ? 



Under P. Uneatum, Baker remarks — " Seems not distinct from the next, " — 

 but see my remark above as to the contrast between the two. The present plant 

 is more coriaceous, and very dry-looking, with veins very prominent and dis- 

 tinct. : the fronds are generally broader and shorter, and have fewer pinna than 

 P. Uneatum has,— 4-15 pairs in Gamble's and ruy specimens ; whereas in our P. 

 Uneatum the number varies from 8 to 30 pairs, only 3 specimens having less 

 than 1G pairs. A specimen I have, from Parasnath Mt. in Bengal, is 7'-6i" 

 high from the rhizome, of which total the stipe is 4 Ah inches, and the frond 

 46. It has only 14 pairs of pinnae : the lowest are 10 in. 1., the next pair 12". 

 and above that there are several about 13 in. The width of the broadest is 

 barely above 1£ in. The pinna of P. multilineahim are much the broader, and 

 the number of pairs of veins rims up to 23 and even 25. Trotter's plant 

 from Kumaun has the narrowest pinna of any I have seen — §■ in., but it 

 nevertheless has 16 pairs of veins. My Kumaun specimens were growing in 

 a swampy slope in forest : very few fronds were fertile. As Beddome added 

 in his supplement, the rhizome is creeping : the stipes are distinct. 



Blanford, in his published List, gives Simla as a habitat, saying : — fi ' The 

 Glen' and some other wooded ravines below 6000'. The pinna are narrow." 

 I think this must be P. Uneatum Colebr. His specimen of P. Uneatum from 

 Chamba is marked by him P. multllineatum, and yet has the narrowest piona 

 of any Uneatum, I have seen, with only G-7 pairs of veins. Trotter says 

 he collected P. multilimatum in Chamba and Simla ; and if he is right as to 

 Major Sage's specimen from Kashmir this is probable enough ; but the evidence 

 I have seems insufficient. 



I have never seen the slightest trace of involucre in this fern, as growing in 

 N.-W. India ; but I detected some in Gamble's specimens from the Palkouda 

 Hills in the Vizagapatam District, 2500', and the Ruinpa Hills, 2000', in the 

 Godavery District, Madras Presidency. The Eumpa Hills plant has pinnre cut 

 down about ^ of the half width (£ in terminal pinna), segments wider than 

 in other P. mult ilinsat urn, and not more than 13 pairs of veins, which curve 

 upwards ; and the sori are at a distance from the costa mstead of near it ; 

 they are much nearer the excurrent veinlet. These Madras specimens may be 

 the same as the Moulmein plant, which I have not seen ; and I suspect 

 Beddome may be right in setting up N. moulmeinense, but wrong in upsetting 

 P. muliilineatum. In his supplement of 181)2 lie says that fronds of N. moul- 



