*'2 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



part of which has been quite untouched by mc — and, of these 212 species, not one 

 was furnished by another person ; they are all of my own individual gathering, 

 as I never fell in with or heard of any fern-collector in Burma during the whole 

 of my residence. The number, therefore, is not offered as strictly that of all the 

 ferns indigenous to the country, only of those that I have proved to be so. 



A full Catalogue of those is given below, and a limited number have been 

 selected (in a somewhat arbitrary fashion certainly, at the same time, according 

 to my idea of their individual interest, and with some reference also to space) for 

 description, or as ground for some observation. There is the less need of a detailed 

 description of all tlie fern*, as (which is not the case with the Orchids) books are 

 to be had which contain full descriptions of all known species, viz. Sir Wm. Hooker's 

 "Species Filicura " in five volumes, and Baker's "Synopsis"' of the same, which 

 is more couipendious, handier and less costly. 



Before leaving the subject of fenis, I should like to say a word or two on fern 

 collecting. Tliere are many fern collectors, but very few good fern collections. 

 They are such pretty things and so easily pressed and dried, as compared -^'ith 

 other plants, that many take to collecting them as an amusement ; and, in the 

 majority of cases, collections made in the ordinary way, however pretty they 

 may look on paper, are, from a scientific point of view, utterly worthless. To 

 identify a fern (unless, indeed, one bo very familiar with it or it be a common 

 one), a scrap, such as the tip of a frond, or a pinna, is quite useless ; how much 

 more, whereby to determine a new species ! Yet scraps are the rule, and really 

 good specimens the very rare exception. To be of real use (and it will look 

 much better too), a fern, if small enough to lie on a sheet of cartridge paper, 

 should be (b'ied whole, rhizome and all ; or, if of the tufted kind, the stipes, cut 

 off at the very bottom, should be dried with the frond ; and ratlier than cut, 

 the specimen should be folded ; or, if divided, the separate portions preserved, 

 duly marked, on separate sheets. Or, again, if part must be sacrified, let it bo 

 a perpendindar half, in which case, the remaining half will be the fac-simile of 

 the lost half. In every case a specimen should be as large as it conveniently, 

 or //(conveniently, may, and always have a portion of the stipes showing tlie 

 scales, if any, near the bottom. If the fern be so large as to make it impossible 

 to dry any considerable portion of it, then a pinna must needs suffice ; or, the 

 end of the frond, and a portion of one of the lowest pinna?, which often differ 

 in form from the rest ; but, always if possible, a piece (a slice cut longitudinally 

 will do) of the stipes. As a rule insects do not attack ferns so freely as they 

 do other dried plants, but the best way to ensure tlnir safety is to wash them 

 o-ver, when thorouglily dried, with a weak solution of corrosive sublimate dissolved 

 in spu'its of wine. 



GLEicnENiA ' mcnoTOJi.i, WilUenow. 



"Rhizome slender, creeping extensively underground, throwing up fronds at 

 intervals. Stipes (frond-stem) rounded, slender, rejjeatedly dichotomous, i.e. branch- 

 ing in a bifurcate manner, first into two, then each of the two divided portions 

 into two again, and so on indefinitely; the ultimate branches bearing simply forked 

 pinnffi, and at each point of bifurcation is a small pair of pinna?. Tlie pinna; are 

 lanceohite and pointed, pinuatifid ; segments narrow, linear, blunt at the end. The 

 whole frond is glaucous (of a bluish-white colour) underneath. This fern forms 

 large tangled masses, varying much in height, from two to fonr feet or more. The 

 son, which are naked and consist of very few tlieca;, and ai'e consequently small, 

 are pdaced in two single lines, one on each side of the midrib of the segments. 



On the clift' at Amherst, very sparingly. Abundant at Mergui on the road to 

 Kulween. A common tropical fern, and of very wide range. 



Another species, O. longissima, is found on mountains at a considerable elevation, 

 as on Nat-toung, near Toung-ngoo. Other species, probably, remain to be found. 



' Gleichenia — presumably from a proper name. 



