J HE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA. 529 



This fern gTOWs nttvr the highest range of C. rufa^ Don, and at about 

 the lowest range of C. albo-marginata^ Clarke, which two species are very 

 unlike each other in general appearance and habit, perhaps agreeing only in 

 having two sorts of fronds, differing as above described. It is much larger 

 than C. nifa, and has the general appearance of very large plants of G. albo- 

 marginata, except that none of its fronds are deltoid as some of those of the 

 other species are ; but it bears fronds some of which might be refeiTcd to one 

 species and some to the other, and, as I cannot refer it as a whole clearly to 

 either, I give it an independent name. It may be a hybrid between C. albo- 

 marginata and G, rufa. 



Colonel Beddome says (Handbook, p. 94), under C, nifa — " Very near the 

 last species" {C. allo-marginata) " only tomentose. I have some specimens 

 from Garhwal. I hardly know which to refer to, the tomentiun being present , 

 but very sparse ; the difference between the two is only a question of the 

 tomentum, and both may well be varieties of farimsa.^' I lived for sixteen 

 years in Dehra and Mussooree in the midst of these species of Cheilanthes 

 and I must say I know of no three species of any genus which are more 

 markedly separate in character and general appearance than these three are. 

 G.farinosa^ in those parts at least, never varies, and is as typical when growing 

 in the Easpana Valley at Eajpur alongside of G. rufa as it is many miles south 

 of any known habitat of that fern. G. alho-marginata looks quite a different 

 pbnt when growing in exposed rock crevices, or on walls, from itself growino- 

 in soil and shade, but it is always clearly distinguishable from G. rufa. G. rufa 

 is always spread out flat on the face of the rock in which it is rooted, thoucrh 

 occasionally it grows in soil above or below rocks. I think I have never seen 

 C./arawsa rooted in rock. I do not think Colonel Beddome has ever seen 

 G. rufa growing. He has probably b^en misled by the fact that both that 

 species and C. aWo-marginata are somewhat dimorphous, though where the 

 resemblance of either to G.jarinosi is I cannot see. 



Genus 20— ASPLENIUM, Uim. 

 Subgenus — Athyeium, Roth. 



22. Asplenium tenellum, n. sp.—AUantodia ienella, "Wall, in Herb. 

 1821, under Asplenium teauifrons, Wall. Cat. No. 206. Plcmts isolated 

 10 — 22 in. high, according to age ; caud., erect, small : st. tufted ; 

 or, if constrained, procumbent, and stipes springing in close longitudinal 

 sequence : a few lanceolate-acDminate brown scales on base of stipes ; st. 

 except close to base, naked, slender, sometimes nearly equalling the 

 frond In length ; fr. broadest at middle or below it, narrowing slightly 

 towards the base and rapidly towards the acuminate apex, bipinnate, 6 — 13 in. 



