﻿MR. JOHN SCOTT ON THE TREE FERNS OF BRITISH SIKKIM. 3 



+ 



of a plant of this species which Mr. Gammie "Was good enough to take for me. The plant 



was growing by the side of the Darjeeling and Eungbee road, at an elevation of 5000 

 feet ; and, as Mr. Gammie remarks, there were many other specunens of larger dimensions 

 in^ the interior of the jungle. The caudex was 2 feet 4 inches in height, and 2 feet 

 6 inches in diameter ; stipes 5 feet 8 inches long, with a circumference at the base of 

 14 inches ; frond 15 feet 8 inches in length, and 9 feet 4 inches broad ; and the diameter 

 from apex to apex of opposite fronds was 24 feet. These plants, abundant as they are in 

 the forest ranges, are strikingly ornamental with their glossy dark-green fronds, and 

 surprised me not a little when I first saw them at such altitudes, accustomed as I had 

 been to see them cultivated in stoves at home. Under the latter treatment the stipes 

 are more slender, the fronds less rigid, and the tissues altogether laxer, as is shown by a 

 measurement of Mr. J. Smith (Perns, Brit, and Eoreign, p. 333), in which he speaks of a 

 plant of this species at Kew reaching the height of 12 feet, spreading outwards, forming 

 a diameter of 34 feet. There are several other handsome subarborescent species {Dipla- 



mi, B. ijolypodioides, D. latifoUum) abundant at the same altitude ; and 

 here also occurs, though somewhat locally, the magnificent Gleichenia longissima 

 (G. gigantea, Wall.), with stout stipes, 8 to 10 or more feet high, interlacing them- 

 selves amongst low bushes &c., from which they send their large gracefully drooping 

 fronds. We have also from this altitude, upwards to considerable elevations, the 

 antique-looking S])h(Bropteris harhata, with its densely hoary-scaled stipes, and such 

 other interesting kinds as Nephrodium splendens, iV. apicifolium, and crinipes, and 

 Folypodium ornatum, all handsome and striking objects in the undergrowth of the 



zmm maxim 



forests*. 



> 



The next of the tree ferns which we find in descending from these elevations are the 

 AlsopUta ornata and A. contaminans, the latter in two varieties. These occur at eleva- 

 tions of 3000 feet, and descend in the valleys of the Eungbee and the Eungjo to 1000 

 feet. A. contaminansy var. Brunoniancty is by far the most abundant of the tropical 

 AlsopUl(E ; indeed I haveonly seen a single specimen of A. contaminans, var. a, in the 

 Eungbee valley. A. ornata is also extremely rare, though (unlike its ally A. Andersoni) 



* 



Sikkim, I was much struck on mv return 



with which several plants (previously rare in the extreme) had taken to the newly made cuttings of the forest-paths, 

 and sprung up in abundance. Amongst others which struck me I may note Spliceroptens harlata and Gleichenia 



X 7 



localities. Now both will soon be amongst the commonest ferns of the mountain ; everywhere 

 find them springing ui> In abundance along the newly cut pathways. The most strikii 



confined 



feature, 



mil 



stretches of beautifully diversified bloom, though in the forest-interiors you might have searched everywhere and 



found 



equally distributed 



In the 



ferns, whose spores are carried in every breath of wind, explanations are easy; but with the AcantTiacece^ 



alike too heavy for such a transit, and devoid of any apparatus for distribution by birds or animals^ 



ulty. Clearly they could not have thus been dispersed (as we may presume the spores hav( 

 conditions favourable to their germination presented themselves), but in all probability have been burieu 



diffi 



months bv our modes 



b2 



V. 



