THE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA. (327 



species of his own making, some of which, I have good reason to beUeve, Ls 

 only N. aridum. Baker (q. v.). The only resemblance it has to iV. moJle^ 

 Desv., of which Becldome says it is a variety, is in cutting and venation ; in 

 every other character it is different. It is a very handsome plant, with fronds 

 rising in a rmg romid the apex " of the snl»rborescent candex, fonning an 

 inverted hollow cone hke that produced in t^truthioptms germanica. N. molle 

 does not grow so regularly. Other distinguishing characters are — the thin 

 papyraceous textm'e ; the ahnost glabrous surfaces ; the prolongation of the frond 

 down the shaft below the lance-head, so to speak ; in short, broadened and 

 auricled pinnte, in almost exactly opposite pairs, wliich UTesistibly suggest butter- 

 flies head downwards — the main rhachis representing ihe body ; and, finally 

 the fugacious or uiconspicuous involucres. 1 have seen this fern in cultivation 

 in the uTigated garden at " Douglas Dale," below Naini Tal, and consider it 

 a strikingly beautiful plant. It seems to require wet, or occasioDaUj flooded, 

 ground for its full development, and consequently the caudex and stipes are 

 naked, or nearly so. Mr. Levinge noted, regarding the specimens he collected 

 below Darjeelmg, and which he incorrectly named i\\ truncatim^ Presl., that tl;e 

 plant grows 6 — ^ ft. high. Mr. Duthie and I got it more than 5 ft. high in a 

 swampy patch in forest near Mussooree in 1882 ; but I could never find the 

 spot again. N. molle is one of the conuuonest ferns ua the Dehra Dun, and 

 the outer N.-W. Himalaya at low levels, and it, too, likes water ; but it is 

 never glabrous, and never has the butterfly-amicled pumaB extending down the 

 shaft of the lance. 



Colonel Beddome, in his Supplement of }.892, says — " Mr. Hope considei-s 

 tliis a well-marked fem, and says that it is subarborescent, and of a brilliant 

 green colour " (I don't recollect giving it the latter-mentioned character) ; 

 " his specimens have quite an erect caudex ; Mr. Wall's Ceylon specimens 



however, have a decidedly creeping root" '• it is a most 



marked fern when fully auricled nearly down to the base of the stipe, but I find 

 this is not always constant, as I have specimens which iiui moV6 rather close." 

 I have suice seen the Ceylon specimens Colonel Beddome refeiTed to — ;two 

 fronds wiih creeping rhizomes : the fronds are similar, though they have only 

 5 pau's of auricled pinnae ; but the creeping rhizome I consider quite enough to 

 separate them, not only from N. Fapilio, but also from N. molle. Thwaites's 

 and Wall's specimens in Kew, cited above, have not a scrap of rhizome : other- 

 wise they are N. Papilio. 



30. Nephrodium OCCUltum, n. ^\—Caud. (or Ehiz.) not seen ; 

 5^. 14^ — 36 in. (incomplete) in length, slightly palaceous at base, as shown by 

 sjars of fallen scales ; fr, — of small specimen 19 J in. 1., 10 m. br. ; of larger 



