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



^y?'. : Sierra Leone — near Free Town, TI. H. Johnston. S. Afr.; Madagascar ? (iV. 

 Inngicmpe^ Baker). 



In giving habitats for this fern I am obliged greatly to assnme from their 

 other characters what sort of rliizome many herbariimi specunens must have had. 

 As ahx'ady said, under N. prolixicm, Baker, I have seen no plants of this section 

 from North- West India with an erect caudex and tufted stipes. I should now 

 add — except of the next species i\^ xi/Iodes^ Kze. In the Synopsis nothing is 

 said as to the rhizome of N. prolixum, Baker, though that is sometimes the most 

 important part of a fern ; nor does Willdenow mention that of his Aspidium 

 proUxum. Nor does Clarke say anything as to rhizomo, but says — '' tufted, " 

 meaning stipes in tufts, which I consider to imply that the caudex is tliick 

 and erect or suberect. Beddome is bolder, and m givuig Lastrea ockihodes, 

 of which he says N. prolixiim, Baker, is a synonym, he writes — " Caudex erect, 

 stipes tufted." And among all the specimens in the Kew \\ erbariiun, named 

 N. ochthodes and N. prolixum, there is not one with an erect caudex, and I 

 think only one with a creeping one, namely, Mr. Clarke's No. 44652, collected 

 at Shillong GlOO', 6-9-8G ; and to the fact of the creeping rhizome Mr. 

 Clarke has called attention, as though it were an abnormality. 



On referring to Kunze's description of Aspiiiium ochthodes, I find he 

 says — " Ehizoma jvvmile tanivm observavi" and of A. xylodes he says only — 

 " rhizomate. . . . •" As to the shape of the frond, Kunze says A. 

 ochthodes ditTers from A. xylodes among other particulars in having " lad 

 sensim altenuatci^^ \ and A. xylodes from the other, thus — " bayl ahrvpia con- 

 tmcta." Kunze's N'. ochthodes, therefore, has a frond gradually attenuated at the 

 base and not suddenly reduced to mere auricles as in iV. repms and N. xtjodes 



Hooker in the Species Filicum, IV, p. 109, gives No. 87 N. {Lastrea) 

 ochthodes, Hook., and for description a verbatim copy of Kunze's ; and then — 

 *' var. a, frond much attenuated at the base by the dwarfing of the pinnae. 

 Aspidium ochthodes, Kze. in Linuffia, XXIV, p. 282. Mett, Aspid., p. 82 ; 

 var. 3., the lowest pah- (several pahs) suddenly abortive, reduced to large 

 tuberculated glands. Aspid. tylodes, Kze., in &g. ; Mett. Aspid., p. 82, vix ab 

 Aspid. ochthode diversum videtur. Aspidium ylanduliferum. Wall. Cat. 347." 

 Wallich's tyiie sheet of No. 347, As^nd. ylamiidiferum, Wall. " Napalia 1821," 

 is the plant I take to be N. prolixom, Baker, with pinnae gradually reduced 

 in length below and broadening into butterfly-shaped auricles : there is no 

 rhizome : the stipe, though incomplete, is 30-|- in. 1. ; and there are about 19 

 pairs of auricles diminishing in size to a mere trace only. Baker's N. pro- 

 Uxum is said to have a prominent gland at the base of the pimise. I can see 

 no glands on any specimens of N. repens. 



