138 NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



bianrita L. Pt. nemorah's he retains, and places next to our Pt. 

 quadriaurita, with characters however, which would seem to 

 combine these two species (or genera), and my own investiga- 

 tions would lead to this conclusion." 



Fournier 1 after discussing the venation of P. biaurita (P. 

 nemorah's), concludes as follows: 



"Ceci prouve qu'il ne faut pas accorder a la venation une 

 importance exageree dans la classification des Fougeres." 



Beddome, 2 under Campteria biaurita adds : 



"Without examining the venation this fern is hardly distin- 

 guishable from P ten's quadriaurita.'''' 



Baker, 3 in a note under P. biaurita says: 



" This differs only from P. quadriaurita in the pinna? being 

 less deeply pinnatirid 4 and the bases of the mid-rib of the 

 segments being connected by an arching vein. This arch 

 springs normally from the bases of the mid-ribs, but some- 

 times begins and ends at points between them. It is some- 

 times triangular, sometimes very low, and in what Agardh 

 considers as P. netnoralis Willd., we have the venation con- 

 sidered as characteristic of biaurita combined with the entirely 

 free venation considered as characteristic of quadriaurita in one 

 and the same frond, so that they must be regarded as very 

 doubtfully distinct." 



As venation forms the one character upon which has been 

 based the distinction between P. biaurita and P. quadriaurita, 

 all other characters being confessedly uniform in the whole 

 series, or not constant, and as this character is clearly unreliable 

 as shown by the material in hand, as well as by the authors 

 cited, there seems no reason why the artificial distinction should 

 longer be maintained. The forms are all accordingly united 

 under the oldest name, P. biaurita L. 



In habit all of the forms which were collected were terres- 

 trial. 



1 Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr., vol. xv, p. 18. 

 8 Ferns of Southern India, p. 14. 



3 Synopsis Filicum, Hooker and Baker, p. 164. 



4 A character which is very variable. 



