﻿MR 



SCOTT ON THE TREE FERNS OF BRITISH SIKKIM. 83 



SO got With mucli less difficulty than their own favourite the A, comosa (« i^ashln , 

 of the higher altitudes, Q. spinulosa is known to the Lepchas under the names of 

 "panhjum" and " pugzhock "—the former name being applied to a somewhat 

 dwarfed form, with caudex rarely exceeding 6 feet in height, found in the drier 

 yalleys of the Teesta, the latter to the fully developed form, 30-40 feet high, of 

 the valleys of the Rungbee and the Rungjo, up to an elevation of 2000 feet. The 

 specimens from the valley of the Teesta were brought to me by our Lepcha col- 

 lectors ; but I have myself seen a few specimens of it in the valleys of the Eungbee 

 and the Rungjo. When seen from a little distance, it might be mistaken for 

 Jlemitelia decipiem, n. sp., though readily distinguishable by its much more flaccid 

 membranous texture and the differently formed involucres. The caudices below 

 are always enveloped in a dense matted mass of strong adventitious roots, and 

 upwards with the strongly armed bases of the persistent stipes, terminating 



handsome corona of pale green fronds. These are from 5 to 8 feet long h/l4r-24> 

 inches in diameter. ~ 



n — a 



Hemitelia, Br. 



F 



Sori globose, dorsal upon a vein or veinlet. Receptacle elevated. Involuc7-e a scale situated on tlic 



underside of the sorus, varying in size and shape and texture, oiten inaistmct, and often very 

 deciduous.— Mostly tropical and arborescent, with the habit of Cyat/iea, a connecting link, as it 

 were, between the latter genus and Alsojjhila, consequently often difficult to recognize. (Svn 



Fil. p. 27.) b K :/ 



Hemitelia decipiens, n. sp. Arborescent ; caudex occasionally dichotomous, 30-40 or 



more feet high, covered upwards with the persistent bases of the past year's fronds, 

 and downwards with a mass of adventitious roots ; stipes of a mahogany-brown 

 colour, strongly aculeate at the base, paleaceous, muricated, furfuraceous, and 

 of a pale brown colour upwards ;/?mc?5 10-12 feet long, somewhat rigidly coriaceous, 

 glabrous, with a few small fringed bullate scales on the costules, drying of a 

 blackish green above, greyish green below ; primary pinna 20-30 inches long, 

 9-12 inches wide, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate ; pinnules 4-8 inches long, and 

 10-12 lines broad, pinnatipartite ; segments linear-oblong, acute, falcate, serrate; 

 veins once to thrice forked, or pinnate, with 3-5 veinlets ; sori conspicuous, copious, 

 close to the costule, and below or upon the axil of the lowest fork, usually on more 

 or less contracted segments with recurved margins ; involucres deciduous, varying 

 in size from a small scale at the base of the sorus to large, semicalyciform, 2-lobed 



or irregularly broken; paraphyses small, miovm.-^Alsopliila decipiens, Bedd. Fil. 

 Brit. Ind. t. 311. 



Hab. Sikkim, near the junction of the Rungbee and the Rungjo, at 2000 feet elevation, and in the 



Poomong Cinchona plantation at 2500 feet. 



This is the " piigzheek-nOk " of the Lepchas. In my notes which I attached to the 

 specimens of this when coUecting I had referred it to Hemitelia ; but in subsequent 

 examinations of dried specimens, too mature when gathered, which showed but slight 

 traces of an involucre, I doubtfuUy placed it amongst the AlsopMlcB, near A, late- 



VOL. XXX. 



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