﻿MR. JOHN SCOTT ON THE TREE FERNS OF BRITISH SIKKIM. 37 



wide; pinnules oblong-acuminate, from a rather broad and. truncated sessile or 

 shortly petioled base, serrated two thirds of the way to the costule, pinnatifid, with 

 very narrow sinuses ; lobes close-placed, oblong, serrated ; veins rarely forked'; sorl 

 orange-coloured, rather distant between the costule and. the margin, nearer the 

 latter (in Sikkim plants always near the costule) ; receptacle small, very slightly 

 elevated.— Syn. Eil. p. 41 ; Bedd. :Fil. Erit. Ind. t. 84 ; Folypodimi comomm, 

 Wall. Cat. n. 319. " Pashin " of the Lepchas. 



Sikkim, in the temperate forests, at elevations of 5000-6000 feet. On the east-by-south-east 

 tiank of the mountain Sinchal it is very abundant, and there forms beautiful groves. 



It is the "pashin" of the Lepchas, an interesting and remarkably proliferous species, 

 producing adventitious buds from nearly every part of the surface of the caudcx and 



Hah 



the bases of the stipes, a peculiarity which 



might very naturally 



be suspected, in the germination of the plant's own spores amongst the appendages of 

 the caudex. It is truly a specific peculiarity, different degrees of organic connexion 

 between the buds and caudex being evident, as I have shown above, in every dissection. 

 This power of reproduction by gemmse, though a weU-known character of the dwarf 

 herbaceous species, has not, so far as I am aware, been hitherto noticed in the caudex 

 of the tree ferns. Ey the continued production of new buds and the growth of the old, 

 together with the profusion of adventitious roots to which they give origin, many of the 

 plants attain very bulky proportions. Thus one of the plants which I measured on the 

 east flank of Sinchal, at an elevation of 5200 feet, much exceeded in thickness, I be- 

 lieve, any that have been previously recorded. This had an erect caudex "26 feet in 

 height, with eleven main ramifications on the lower parts, varying from 6-10 feet in 

 length, and 10-16 inches in circumference. Six other fuUy developed shoots from 5-8 

 feet long had been lately broken off, and then lay by it. The circumference at base of 

 main caudex was 9 feet 10 inches, and immediately under the first ramification, at a 

 height of 4 feet, 7 feet 6 inches ; fronds 11-13 feet lorn?, 4^-6 feet broad, with stout 



stipes 4J inches in circumference at the base. Another, whose dimensions I had from 

 Mr. Gammie,was 21 feet and 7 feet 8 inches in circumference, with 54 shoots in various 

 stages of development. It presents another peculiarity in the fall of the fronds ; in 

 all the other species this is effected gradually, while this is strictly deciduous, and this, 

 singularly enough, at a period when the surrounding vegetation is all in its highest 

 vigour. This is about the middle of August, and of course during the periodical rains, 

 when latent vegetation in any truly indigenous plant would indeed be an anomaly, 

 but preeminently so in the case of ferns, which above aU others delight and are most 

 luxuriant (each in its own habitat) in that period of the year when the temperature is 

 highest and the degree of atmospheric humidity greatest. Of the many ferns inhabiting 

 those forests I know of none which affords a parallel to A. comosa; all others are 

 vigorous and verdant ; it alone stands in great groups, with bare, bulky, and unshapely 

 caudices, conspicuous in their barrenness, and looking like the imperfectly habituated 

 denizens of other climatic conditions. 



The extreme height of this species is, I beHeve, about 25 feet ; but this is only attained 

 in the least-proliferous individuals ; and much more frequently we find these at from 



