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TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



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THE LINNEAN SOCIETY 



I. Notes on the Tree Ferns of British Slkkim, with Descriptions of three Neio Species 



d 



a 



few 



ipplemental remarks on their relations to Falms and Cycads 



John Scott, Curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta 



Thomas Andbeson, M.D., F.L.S.) 



Hy 



[Communicated hy 



(Plates I-XVIII.) 



Eead Pebruary 17th, 1870. 



1 HE Tree Perns of Britisli Sikkim belong to the genera Cyathea, ffemitelia, and Also 



phila,— the former being represented by the only known species in India proper (the 

 C. spimilosa), Hemitelia also by a single species (which seems to me new, the S, deci- 



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piens, n. sp.), and Alsophila by four out of the five known continental Indian species 

 and two others which I do not think have been hitherto described 

 eight indigenous 



I thus recognize 



species ; and it is interesting to note that these may aU be collected 

 three-miles walk from the bungalow on the Cinchona plantations at Eungbee. 



I 



need scarcely add that such specific concentrations of tree ferns are rarely to be met with 



It is also noteworthy that while the temperate forests at elevations of from 



India 



5000-6500 feet abound in a variety of the humbler fern forms, two only of the nobler 



forms occur in these ^ ^^ 



What is therein wanting in variety, however, is largely 



g,^^ceful fronds 



pensated for by the number and luxuriance of individuals; and it is by no means rare to 



find both species forming extensive groves, in which are specimens from 40 to 50 feet in 



ght, with undivided or branching stems and many-headed coronas of wide-spreading 



The tropical species, on the other hand, are in general much isolated, 

 from the extensive clearances of their habitats by the Lepchas for the cultivation of their 

 maize, millet, eleusine, and other crops ; so that along whole ranges of those mountain- 

 flanks, the tree fern rarely greets the eye, and we must needs search for them in tlie 

 deep recesses of their valleys, by the reeky forest-clad banks of rivers, and other uncul- 

 tivable places. There are several such refuges in the lands reserved by Government for 

 cinchona cultivation; and endemic to them, as I have above stated, are, fortunately for their 



VOL. XXX. 



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