PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 287 



interest is attached to those got under Capt. Sir G. Nares by Capt. 

 Feilden of the ' Alert ' and Mr. Hart of the ' Discovery.' As these 

 vessels wintered in different quarters, the localities where the 

 lichens were obtained are more numerous, thus adding to then- 

 value as indicative of vegetable life in the frozen regions. Mr. 

 Hart got his at thirteen stations. Discovery Harbour, 81° 42' N. 

 . lat., being the most northern; Capt. Feilden records twelve 

 stations, Westward Ho Valley, 82° 41' N. lat. being the limit. 

 But Lieut. Aldrich gathered Gyrophora cylindrica on the shore 

 of the " palseocrystic sea," the northernmost sj)ot trodden by man, 

 viz., Cape Columbia, 83° 6' 30" N. lat. Prof. Fries notes that the 

 so-called " fruticolous " and " foliaceous " species are feebly repre- 

 sented, doubtless in consequence of the severe climate, and seem- 

 ingly at variance with the x^reseuce of musk oxen ; added to which 

 the reindeer moss is absent. This anomalous circumstance of the 

 presence of large ruminants and deficiency of their usual food 

 Caj)t. Feilden explains by stating that the musk ox in Grinnel 

 Land does not feed on lichens, but on mosses and grasses. The 

 same officer has also pomted out that the lichens curiously 

 enough increased in size with increase of altitude. Prof. Fries 

 concludes that, without the least credit being given to an oj^en 

 Polar sea (existing, no doubt, only in fancy), lichen vegetation 

 may exist at the very Pole, if only land be there occasionally fi-ee 

 from snow or ice. All the forms of lichens — over 100 — obtained 

 by the Expedition, save a very few, are already known. — The 

 Secretary read a communication on a new form of Helvella, 

 described by Mr. W. Phillips. It was gathered in 1876 on the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains, in California, by Dr. Harkness. Its 

 nearest ally is Helvella crisjxi, Fr., and for the new species the name 

 H. californica is proposed. — The gist of a long memoir, ' A Keview 

 of the Ferns of Northern India,' by Charles B. Clarke, was orally 

 communicated by the author. India proper, that is exclusive of 

 the Malayan or Trans-Gangetic Peninsula, was divided by Kurz 

 into three main regions, viz.: — 1. The Himalaya extending from 

 Kashmu* to Bliotan and Chittagong ; 2. The Peninsula, with 

 Ceylon, extending as far north as the table -land extends ; and 3. 

 The great plain between, the home of the Hindoos — Hindostan. 

 The area included in this pa]3er comprises the first and third of 

 these divisions. It is intended to form a copious appendix to 

 Hooker and Baker's ' Synopsis Filicum,' and as Col. Beddome has 

 so nearly exhausted the Ferns of India the plates now designed 

 merely bring out the minor differences so as to assist specific 

 determination. Col. Beddome counts of species and varieties in 

 India, 631 species ; in Southern India, 320 ; in the Trans-Gangetic 

 Peninsula, 330 ; and in Northern India, 405 species. The present 

 paper admits 366 species in Northern India, exclusive of 12 

 Lycopods and four Equisetums, which have been added so as to 

 include all the monosporous Acrogens. By far the largest genera 

 in N. India are Fubjpodium (67 species), Asplenmm (56 species), and 

 Nephrodimi (54 species). Seventeen new species have been de- 

 scribed. There has been ai)pended a complete reduction of the 



