338 



NOTES ON INDIAN FERNS. 



BY 



Col. R. H. Beddomb. 



Having lately received a large collection of ferns from the North- 

 West Provinces of India to name, I have been going through all my 

 Indian ferns, and been studying Mr. Hope's articles on the ferns of 

 North-West India which appeared in your Journal. I have drawn up 

 a few notes chiefly on Mr. Hope's nomenclature and his new species 

 which, I think, may be published in your Journal as they may be of 

 interest to collectors in India. 



Davallia {Leucostegid) Beddomei (Hope). — This fern has the scales of the 

 rhizome rounded like those of pulchra. The fronds are not distinguishable from 

 those of Hookeri (Moore), which has the scales pointed. It seems to me rather 

 hair-splitting to found a species only on the difference of scales. Indian 

 botanists should further compare these species. The localities for Beddomei are : 

 Dainkland ridge 8,500', Macdonald ; Kullu, Jalori pass 8,000'— 10,000, Trotter ; 

 Jaranda 7,000', Lace ; Simla region 8,000'— 10,000', Blanford and others ; for 

 Hookeri, Chamba 10,500', J. Marten ; Sandookphoo 11,000', Levinge. 



pulchra, Delavayi, pseudo-cystopteris, Hookeri and Beddomei are all very 

 closely allied. 



Asplenium (Athyrium) tenellum (Hope). — Specimens of this forwarded to me 

 by Mr. Hope agree exactly with specimens of Athyrium solenopteris (C. P. 3,067) 

 from Ceylon, specimens of my own collecting from Tinnevelly, and specimens 

 from Mr. Mann collected in Assam ; they all have setse on the pinnules as in 

 nigripes and its varieties. Mr. Thwaites called his plant simply nigripes. It 

 seems to run more or less into tenuifrons which is generally considered only a 

 variety of nigripes, so I am now of opinion that solenopteris should also come 

 • under nigripes as a variety only. Wailich's specimen in the Linnaean Herbarium 

 labelled Allantodia tenellum is not however this variety but only a poor specimen 

 of nigripes var.incisa. There is a larger variety of this solenopteris common 

 on the Nilgiris, i.e., the fern figured as solenopteris in my hand-book and de- 

 scribed by Kunze in Linnsea, Vol. XXIV, part III, page 266, the smaller form 

 being variety pusilla, Kunze, page 267, but I think they quite run into each 

 other. 



This fern is quite distinct from pectinatum var. tenellum of my hand-book, a 

 fern found on Mahableshwar, at Mt. Abu and in Central India. 



Athyrium rupicola (Edgeworth), Hope. This attenuated form of A. Filix-femina 

 is very common in Northern India, it is very variable in size and shape though 

 always more or less lanceolate or narrow-lanceolate in form. It is quite 

 analogous to forms occurring in England such as var. rhceticumand others ; in the 

 supplement to my hand-book, I referred some of these to var.attenuata (Clarke) 



