:; 



Mil. J. <;. BAKER ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF FERN:,. 



Irrottichwm linear e } and Ophioglowum palmatum; the Australian, Hymenophyllum 



gr». ' pkrodium htipi 'urn, and Plat ij cerium alcicorne. In the above analysis the 

 Beychell are included ; but very likely, when we know them better, it will be worth 

 while to consider them separately. So far as we know their flora, most of the species 

 aiv both M.i .-irene and Indo-Malayan ; but there are three peculiar species, and two 

 i hich arc Mala; id hut not African. Summing up the district as a whole, we find that 

 it has sjx'cii , the peculiar ones being distributed as follows : — 



Mascarene isles 

 Guinea aud Senegainbia 



St. Helena 



Common to East and "West 



Angola .... 



Seychelles 



Abyssinia 



Common to East and Mauritius 



Total 



54 

 41 



13 



8 

 6 



3 



1 



i 



127 



P, Tr< nral Asia.— We come now to the great centres of fern-distribution. Our list for 

 pical Asia and Polynesia as a whole includes 863 species, 39 per cent, of the whole 



Beginning in the west, we 



is are con- 



order, out of which 177 species are peculiar to the district 



find a million square miles in tropical Arabia almost a blank so far as Per 



d 



Forskahl's list for Arabia Felix includes only nineteen species, and we do not 



know one that is peculiar 



The Ferns of Peninsular India are very much concentrated 



of hills that runs parallel with the western coast from Bombay to Cap 



Comorin, especially in the Neilgher 



centre, we may form an idea from Mr. Edgeworth's florula of Banda, which only includes 



Of the state of things in the drier tracts of the 



Ferns for a district which produces upwards of 600 flower 



plants 



Ther 



probahly very few additions yet to make to the Ferns of Southern India and Ceylon ; 

 nd we have a full account of them in the recent works of Dr. Thwaites and Captain 

 I eddorne, the latter containing qnarto plates of all the known species. We may reckon 

 the number of species at 250, of which 200 are Ceylonese. The number of species which 

 — neither Malayan nor Polynesian is 46, of which half are peculiar, the others nearly all 



Himalay 



Of well-marked peculiar species 



have instances in Cyathea Hook 



.^ A*plenium zeylanicum, Nephrodwm deparioides, Poly podium Gardner* and 





of species common to South India and the Himalay 



but not elsew 



•sown, incite gmuUm, Spharopteri* barbata, Asptemum normale, AspkVm 



««», JXepbrodwm c„spid a t„m, Polypodinm membmnaceum and hemionUideim . dm 



1 1 ",■ T7t\ ;'■ • d ***** pnlmata onIy ? row e,swhere - tr °p icai America ' FeU *° 



' J - " Ca S ITv^TZ^l T V" n " at " m fa Nata1 ' tr ° piCal Amel 



Ferns of Siam and the country to the east we know nothu 



For tllP ialnrwl P TT -r. "" "^ ^UnWV tO tUC eaSl 



Z* re 2? ? * ^ *"* are enumerated in Bentham 

 three are peculiar, and two interesting species 



s < Flora,' of which 

 Brainea imignis, known elsewhere only 



