HISTOEY OF INTRODUCTION OF EXOTIC FERNS. 25 



Malacca would also form _a striking addition to our 

 tropical ferneries, its pinnafi&l fronds being from three 

 to four feet long on stipes about half as long again, 

 rising from an arborescent caudex. In Blume's 

 " Enumeration of the Ferns of Java " alone, no less 

 than 460 species are described, of which about 300 

 are regarded as new. Many of them are, however, not 

 distinct as species, but are fine and showy and well 

 worth the cultivator's notice. 



Remarkable for their structural characters, there 

 are Sphceroptema barbata of Nepal, and Diacalpe 

 aspidioides of Eastern Bengal and Java; the fronds 

 of the former resembling those of a Lastrea dilatata, 

 but having globose sori with cup-shaped indusia 

 elevated on distinct pedicels, while the latter has 

 very similar sori not elevated. Another Fern of 

 Eastern Bengal worthy of notice is the Acropliorus 

 nodosus, a species with large decompound fronds 

 remarkable on account of their pinnae standing out 

 almost horizontally, or at right angles with the main 

 rachis. The same district, including the Khasaya and 

 Silhet hills, Assam, Bootan, Sikkim, &c., is extremely 

 prolific in fine Ferns, which, though familiar enough 

 in a botanical point of view, are still unknown in 

 our gardens : they would yield a rich harvest to a 

 collector of living plants; and it is not a little remark- 

 able that so few of them have not long ago been 

 introduced through the Botanic Garden of Calcutta. 

 The total number of known species of Indian Ferns 

 may be stated in round numbers to be 400 ; and what 

 we have of these have been received from their other 

 habitats. I cannot, of course, attempt to give a list 

 of Indian desiderata ; but, in addition to the two or 



