316 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



ferns collected in and iiround Mussoorie, the hill station in the Dehra 

 Dun district, by Mr. P. W. Mackinnon and Mr. V. A. Mackinnon of 

 that place, have from time to time been studied by me ; and during 

 the same period extensive collections made in the Chamba and Kash- 

 mir States by Mr. J. C. McDonell, of the Imperial Forest Department, 

 now on deputation as Conservator of Forests in Kashmir, have been 

 at my disposal for study. I have to thank the Messrs. Mackinnon 

 and Mr. McDonell for many fine specimens. 1 frequently exchanged 

 views and specimens with the late Mr. H. F. Blanford, F.R.S., who 

 collected for some years in the Simla region, and embodied the results of 

 his study in a paper published in the " Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal " in 1888. Probably every specimen of many hundreds 

 collected in the Punjab and Kashmir, and also in Kumaon, 

 by Mr. E. W. Trotter, of Rawalpindi and Murree, in the 

 years 1887 to 1892, has been scrutinised by me, and my collection has 

 been greatly increased by his gifts. Major R. W. MacLeod, I.S.C, 

 showed me collections made by him in Western Kashmir in 1891, and 

 in Kumaon in 1893, and gave me many fine specimens. I have seen 

 the collections made in the Simla region by Mr. T. Bliss, of Lahore 

 and Simla, an enthusiastic collector and horticulturist, and I possess 

 many fine specimens given to me by him. And, lastly, for several 

 years before I left India, the extensive collections made by Mr. J. S. 

 Gamble (Director of the Imperial Forest School at Dehra Dun) in the 

 Simla region of the Punjab, the Dehra Dun district of the North- Western 

 Provinces (which includes the Himalayan tract — Jaunsar-Bawar), the 

 Tehri-Garhwal Hill State, Sikkim and Bhutan, in the North-Eastern 

 Himalaya, the Chittagong and Chutia-Nagpur divisions of Bengal, and 

 the Madras Presidency, were available ; and Mr. Gamble has given me 

 many specimens collected by him in the Dehra Dun district and Tehri- 

 Garhwal in places which I have never been able to visit. Early in 

 1896, I spent some busy days in the herbarium of the Calcutta Bota- 

 nic Garden, taking notes of the North- West Indian ferns there, and 

 verifying conclusions as to the species included in this paper. I desire 

 to record my grateful thanks to Sir George King, the late Director 

 of the Botanical Survey of India, and to Dr. D. Prain, 

 who has lately succeeded him, for the help they then gave me. Finally 

 it may be mentioned that in 1872, and again in 1888-89, I studied th© 



