532 JOVHNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



stump'^ remainiiif; of stipes representing fronds larger than any then existing. 

 Probably the longer fronds get broken off by the wind, or cropped by cattle 

 or floats, during the rainy season. Blanford had been calling the plant 

 A. Schimperi^ A. Br., narrow form ; but when I collected it in 1886 I 

 thought it distinct and new, and proposed to call it A. nipestre. On going 

 to Kew in 1888 I found a specimen collected by Edgeworth, and named by him 

 A. rupkola. Meanwhile, Mr. Blanford seems to have entered the fern in his 

 list of the Ferns of Simla (Journ. Asiat. See, Beng. 1888) as A. Filix-fmmina, 

 var. retusUy Deene., subvar. e^ow^rfrfc, Clarke, from sheets at Kew so marked by 

 Clarke. This subvariation is too metaphysical for me, and, as the plant is 

 unlike A. FiUx-fcemina in eveiy respect, I give it as a species, and adopt 

 Edgeworth's name as being very appropriate. I disagree with Beddome when he 

 says that the frouds are very similar to those of A. tSchimperi, A. Br., but almost 

 always only bipinnatifid. A. rupicola is very gradually narrowed towards the 

 base, whereas A. Scliimperi is hardly narrowed at all ; and I have never 

 seen the first-named species with fronds even nearly bipiunate ; but probably 

 Beddome, as Clarke does, includes in the variety retusa of A. FiUx-famina 

 other plants which I do not know. In the Calcutta Herbarium I found, and 

 separated, a good many specimens of A. rupicola, but I omitted to note par- 

 ticulars regarding them. 



Genus 22— ASPIDIUM, Sir. (in part). R. Br. 

 Subgenus — Polystichum, Roth. 

 3. Aspidium Duthiei, n. sp. — Plants with erect caudices in dense 

 tufts ; St. short, ?tout, 1 — 2 in. long, densely clothed with large jjale-di-ab, 

 almost straw-coloured, scales, which extend up the rliachis to the apex of the 

 frond, dimhiishing in size upward, and along the costtfi on both surfaces, imder- 

 ueath protruding from among the sori ; fr. 2 — 4, 5 in. l, narrow, linear, 

 simply pinnate ; pinn. short, blunt, hardly auricled, broadened at base on both 

 sides, merely lobed or crenate above, markedly alternate ; upper surface covered 

 with small white glands or setro ; texture subcoriaceous ; sori about 4 pairs to 

 a pinna near the costa. (Plate VI.) 



N.-W. P. : T. Oar^.— Dudu Glacier 14-15,000', Duthie Ko. 396, 19-8-83; Kutti 

 Valley, above Napalcha, 13,300', Duthie No. 3708 (in part) ; ZMwmMw— Lebong Pass 

 16-17,000', Duthie No. 6284, 1886. 



Nepal, West— Nampa GMh 13-14,000', Duthie No. 6233, 1886. 



I have felt obliged to separate this plant from A . lachmimse^ Hook., both 

 because it differs from that plant in appearance, and because Hooker's description 

 of A. lachenmse cannot be made to cover it. Nor is that description correct for 

 even the type plant, especially as to the cutting of the pinnae, which can hardly 



