THE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA. Ill 



one character being the catadromous secondary pinnse at base of a sterile 

 segment. Clarke finds that all the Indian material he has seen seems one 

 species, with straight epidermis cells ; but he can make very little of the ana- 

 cata-dromous distinction. Milde finds both sets of plants in the Himalaya, and 

 reckons them very distinct species. After examining all the specimens of B. 

 lanuginosum in Gamble's and my collections, I find that a decided majority is 

 catadromous , but one specimen is anadromous on one side, and has pinnules 

 exactly opposite each other on the other side. I think with Clarke that this 

 distinction may be disregarded,— the more so that it is not needed. 



B. lanuginosum varies very much in size, cutting, r.nd habit. I have a 

 specimen from a little below Naini Tal with stipes 4 in. and frond 5 in. 1. by 

 6 in. bi\, and another from the hill north of Almora, grown in open pasture- 

 mounted on two sheets, though minus the upper third— the lower pinnas of 

 which are 10—11 in. I by 0—9 in. br., as mounted. The next higher pair of 

 pinnse are 7| and 9 in. 1. by 3-*- in. br. The fertile spike is about 8 in. I. with 

 lowest pinnae 3| in. L, tripinnate like the rest of the frond. A large frond, also 

 from Kumaun, Davidson, is much more compound, and may almost be said 

 to be quinquepinnate. I look upon the sterile part of the plant, taken 

 together with the stipes, as the frond, and would not talk of it as a segment. 

 It is a regularly pinnate frond, and the fertile spike is an extra branch or pinna, 

 which does not interfere with the symmetry of the frond in other respects. I 

 am confirmed in this view of the structure of the plant by finding in Gamble's 

 collection a specimen from Ootacamund, in the Nilgiris, which, besides the 

 usual fertile pinna (in this case as in all Mr. Gamble's Nilgiri specimens, taking 

 off above the second lowest pair of the frond ), has a small fertile pinnule 

 on one of the lower pair of pinnae taking off above the lowest pair of 

 secondary pinnae or pinnules. Another curious specimen in Gamble's collection 

 from Mysore 5000', "coll. W. A. Talbot," No. 3087, 1893, has two fronds 

 springing together from the same root, about equal in size, and perfectly 

 normal, each with its fertile spike. My large specimen from near Almora has 

 some sori on the sterile pinnae, one cluster of six on the fourth pinna from the 

 base, and several others here and there. I think a similar case was mentioned 

 lately in the Journal of Botany with regard to another species of Botrychium. 

 B. lanuginosum has a thick rhizome and thick, fleshy roots, and is a terres- 

 trial fern ; but, like various other plants of the Himalayan forests, it is some- 

 times found growing in the clefts of branches of trees, sometimes high up. 

 I have two specimens from Assam which are quite glabrous. /vv^ 



