632 JOURNAL, BOAlBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



■ ? Nephrodium microstegium, Hk. Sp. Fil. IV., 119, t. 250. Ceylon, 

 Gardner, No. 1151, V. S. Throughout India, Wall,, Hook, and 

 Thorns. 

 " What can Griffithii be ? " (This qviery is added in pencil.) 



Finally, in the Levinge collection, in the Museum of Science and Art, 

 Dubhn, I have fiamd a specimen, named P. didansy Don, from Garhwal, 

 Levino-e 1872, but on the ticket of which Mr. Levinge has M^ritten — " rootstock 

 creeping Nvidely." The frond of this specimen measures 4 ft. by Ih^ in., but 

 no stipes has been preserved. On the other hand, see Mr. Levinge's specimen 

 with '' tufted rootstock," cited by me under P. distans. 



Mr. Trotter and I, after coiresponding m India on the subject of this fern 

 (see his rcanarks above), in the end agreed that it was a Polypodium, and, from 

 its peculiar rhizo.ne, entitled tr. specific rank. I asked Mr. Trotter to describe it, 

 and in June 1891 he sent me the description given at the outset of this article. 

 He said the description had been prepared, after repeated examination, to 

 cover every single specimen in liis collection. I have given it almost 

 verbatim. 



P. late-repens^ like Nephrcdium rfpens^ Hope, is a lover of water, and I 

 collected it first from swampy ground near Simha, where it was flourishing on a 

 muddy, shaly talus. The rhizome and stipes were very succulent and brittle, 

 and, with the scales, beautifully coloured— rather, perhaps, mauve than dark 

 purple, as Mr. Trotter has it. The size and cutting of the fronds depend, of 

 course on the degree and luxuriance of growth of the plant. The sori are often 

 oval. Hooker's remark that the frond of P. paludosum is invariably bipinnate 

 does not apply to P. late-repens, the segments (or pinnules) of which are almost 

 invariably united at the base, or decurrent on a winged rhachis (only in one of 

 my numerous specimens does the wing appear to be intemipted); but at first 

 si^ht some other specimens seem bipinnate. Blanford seems to have known the 

 two plants, but yet to have placed them both as P. distans. He 



said : — 



" Common in ravines, down to my lowest level (4500'), and up to nearly 

 10,000'. At the former limit the fronds are small and narrow, with 

 short, distant pinnae, and the rootstock decumbent, hardly crcepmg. 

 Above 7500' tlie fronds grow to 3 and 4 feet in length, broadly lanceo- 

 late, and with close-set pinnas 2 inches broad ; the pinnre cut down 

 square to a winged rhachis, segments deeply pinnatifid. Some speci- 

 mens of these latter have a creeping rhizome," 

 Something might be infeiTed as to the nature of the plant named by Don, 



P. distans, if we knew with certainty what the specific name meant — whether 



