84 VEGETATION. 



A. Oldhamiy whicli grows gregariously, is, perhaps, the most elegant 

 of all the Sikhim tree-ferns, and is common, but A. ornata is rather 

 rare. Both have the strange habit of shedding their fronds in the 

 wettest and warmest season of the year and remaining bare for several 

 weeks. The pith of the stems of three species, H. decipiens, A. Old- 

 hami, and A. Andersoni, is eaten by the Lepcbas wlien there is dearth 

 of other and more wholesome food. They also use the same substance 

 for making their "marwa" beer when the supply of the Elusine 

 or marwa grain is exhausted. It is dried in tlie sun, fermented, 

 and afterwards put in a bamboo cj'linder with water in the usual 

 way of making marwa beer, and the liquor sucked through a thin 

 reed placed in the middle. Of the other kinds of ferns, the genera 

 more abundant in species are DavalUn, Pteris, Aspleniiivi, Nrphrodkan, 

 Polypodium, and Acrosticfmm. Osmunda regalis, the Royal fern of 

 Europe, is to be found, as are also the European Moonwort and 

 Adder's-tongue ferns. Ancjiopleris evecta, which is found from the hottest 

 parts up to 6,000 feet, attains to gigantic proportions, especially in 

 the cool forests, where its massive fronds grow to more than five yards 

 in length and three in breadth, with a spread over all, measuring from 

 tip to tip of opposite fronds, of eight yards. At the bases of the fronds 

 are succulent appendages which the Lepchas cook and eat in times of 

 scarcity. They also habitually use the young fronds of several species 

 as a vegetable, and very excellent they are when properly cooked. 

 There are four Adiantums or Maidenhairs, two of which, lunuhtum and 

 candatiim, cover the banks of tlie roads in many places at the lower 

 elevations in the rainy season, and pedatiim and venusium grow at the 

 cool heights of 6 — 10,000 feet. In the valley of the Rungeet a hand- 

 some climbing fern, Acrosticlmm pahistre, clothes the trunks of tall trees, 

 and a Lygodium which climbs on grasses and the smaller shrubs is 

 common up to 4,000 feet. The two Cdekhenias found in Sikhim are also 

 of a scandent nature. The largest one, glauca, which has a superficial 

 likeness to the ubiquitous Bracken, forms almost impenetrable thickets, 

 15 or 20 feet in lieight, in places at 6,000 feet and above. Of the 

 kinds found growing on rocks jmd trees the most delicately beautiful 

 are the Hymcnophtilhnns and Triclw^nanes, popularly known as Filmy 

 ferns. There are 8 sorts of them, mostly confined to the cool, moist 

 forests over 5,000 feet. The Irish Filmy [Trichomanes radicans) is the 

 largest, covering the faces of large rocks under dense shade, and its 

 fronds growing to over a foot in length ; whilst those of Bymeno- 

 phyllum Lcviiiyn barely exceed an inch or an inch and-a-half in length. 

 J\Jany of the Ddvullias, I'olypodnam, and Asplenhims are very beautiful 

 and graceful on the rocks and trees during the rainy season, and the 

 bird's-nest fern {Asplennim nidus) and Drynaria coronans, with their 

 large, massive fronds, are always conspicuous objects; the former 



