600 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI 1 J 



of the same catalogue in 1897 the species of ferns found at 

 Mahableswar and Matheran 1 amount to 32. The latest and at the 

 same time the richest contribution towards the knowledcre of the 

 fern-vegetation of the Bombay Presidency is contained in Vol. V of 

 our Journal, where T. R. M. Macpherson 2 gives a list of 75 species 

 gathered in North Kanara. Reference is sometimes made to the 

 Bombay-ferns in W. Hooker's " Species Filicum " and " Synopsis 

 Filicum", of Smith's " Historia Filicum," R. H. Beddome's "Ferns 

 of Southern India," " The Ferns of British India," and especially in 

 his " Handbook to the Ferns of British India, Ceylon and the Malay 

 Peninsula," Here I must not forget to mention Gray who, in his 

 treatise on the " Botany of the Bombay Presidency," 3 mentions 

 about 50 species of Ferns. 



Of the species enumerated in the catalogue I was able to verify all, 

 except Nos. 108, 109, and 110, which have been received into the 

 list on the authority of Gray. Through the kindness of Mr. Gammie 

 I had access to the Herbarium of the Economic Botanist at Kirkee. 

 Most of its specimens belong to other parts of the Bombay Presi- 

 dency than North Kanara. The collections of the B. N. H. S. cover a 

 greater area. Macpherson's herbarium supplements that at Kirkee 

 as it contains exclusively specimens from North Kanara, Another 

 collection, by Woodrow, consists chiefly of species gathered at 

 Mahableshwar, Matheran, and in the Southern Mahratta Country. 

 The Herbarium of St. Xavier's College contains specimens collected 

 in the Konkan, on the Ghats, and in the Poona district. 



In the " Note ' : to the " Flora of the Presidency of Bombay ' 

 Cooke says : " A difficulty which occurs in the preparatian of a local 

 flora is the want, in many cases, of information as to the precise 

 localities in which specimens have been collected. The older 

 botanists, Stocks, Dalzell, Law, etc., who collected in the Presidency, 

 rarely furnished more definite localities than Konkan, Deccan, Sind 

 and the like." I, fu - my part, have no reasons to make the same 

 complaint. Nearly all the specimens I have seen are well ticketed, 

 and only in a few cases 1 had to be satisfied with a more general in- 



1 H. M. Birilrt'ood : A Catalogue of the Flora of Matubleshwar and llatheran; in Journal, 

 B. X. H.S., Vcl. X, i». .394. 



- I'. E. M. Macpherson : List of Ferns gathered in Nor'.h Kanara ; in Journal, B. N. H. S 

 Vol. V, 375. 



W. Gray. The Botany of the Bombay Presidency ; in Bomb;iy Gazetteer, Vol. XXV 



