THE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA. 121 



DiSTEiB,— Jsia : N. Ind. (Him,) Nepal, Wallich ; Sikkim' iA ClarlieV) T, T.; 

 6-7000' W, S, Atkinson 3.iii. C.B. Clarlie ; Assam C^. C/airfte«)—Naga Hills 5500', 

 Clarlie, 



Both Bed dome and Blauford say A. tenuifrons does not root at the apex, as 

 A. ClarJcei normally does ; but I think it probable that sometimes it does so 

 root, for not unfrequently the fronds bear buds or bulbils near the apex, just 

 as A. ClarTcei does, which produce young plants ; and if late in the season, 

 from decay, such fronds should bend downwards the buds or plants would 

 have a chance of taking root, or — the young plants may drop off and take root. 

 I have a large frond collected by Mr. McDonell in Chumba, stipe 12 in., frond 

 271 in. 1., which has produced a young plant at two inches from its apex, 

 one inch in length, stipe and frond together, — an aerial growth. Another 

 plant, collected in Kullu by Mr. Trotter, with five fronds, has two buds on 

 each of three fronds, and two of these have produced aerial plants about 

 half an inch long. There are two minute buds on Gamble's No. 6311 

 from Simla ; and some very large fronds -got in Tehri Garhwal by the 

 Messrs. Mackinnons are proliferous, one having four buds. A frond from 

 Kumaun (Colonel Davidson) has two buds, both of which have thrown out 

 minnte fronds. Aud, finally, Wallich's specimens of this plant, in the 

 Herbarium of the Linnean Society have bulbils and young plants : one plant 

 has five or six young plants on it. These are named — some Asplenium tenui- 

 frons, Wall., and some — Allantodia dentimlata. Wall, in Herb. 1823. 



Mr. Clarke gives Asplenium tenuifrons, Wall., Cat. 206 (pait of type sheet) 

 as a synonym of A, ClarJcei (and also Allantodia denticulata Wall.), but there 

 are such differences in the shape of the fronds and of the pinnules that I 

 hesitate to say that they are the same specifically. Both seem to like a moist 

 soil. Clarke writes of the rhizome of Atkinson's plant — " stout, tufted, stand- 

 ing 2 inches out of wet sand, with a cluster of stipes at the top, radiating 

 round and rooting in a circle, at a radius of about 2 feet from the central 

 rhizome : the sub-terminal rooting bud seems always present in well-developed 

 fronds ; rarely are there two rooting buds." At my Simla station A. tenuifrons 

 grows in the bed of a ton'ent, and the caudex must often be under water in the 

 rainy season. To make A. Clarkei a var. of A. nigripes seems to me, unreason- 

 able ; but as it is not a North- West Indian fern, I am not here concerned in 

 advocating its claims to be a species. 



I have already indicated some of the principal features of A, tenuifrons. It 

 is stiff and upstanding, though youog plants approach A. teneUim in habit. 

 If plants of the latter species should be found much longer than I have seen 

 (one or two large qnes, e. g., Mr. Duthie No. 3634 froni Kumaun, the frond 



