122 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV 



of which, without the stipes, is 2li in. 1. by only 4 in. br.) and with a thick 

 erect caudes, I might be disposed to unite the species, but — " as at present 

 advised" — I must consider them distinct plants. Perhaps the most decided 

 difference between both of these species on the one hand, and A. nigrijoes on 

 the other, at least after the shape of the fronds, is the absence in the first- 

 mentioned pair of the mass of long, narrow, light brown scales at foot of stipes, 

 which is a prominent feature of A. nigripes. The scales in A. tenuifrons are 

 dark brown, tapering to a hair point from a broad base ; and though they clothe 

 the stipes of young fronds before the fronds unaurl, they soon drop off, leaving 

 the stipes quite glabrous, except for one or two inches at the base, which ara 

 sparingly clothed. A large specimen of 4. ^e«?/,i/irows in Mr. Bliss's collection 

 is quite diplazoid ; and I see a tendency to that form of sorus in other speci- 

 mens also. 



Mr. Blanford evidently formed a strong opinion as to the specific difference 

 between A. tenuifrons and A. nigripes, and his remarks seem worth quoting in 

 full ; but most of what he called A. nigripes, in the Simla Eegion, was my 



A. Mactannoni : — 



'•'Mr. Clarke regards this as merely a form of A. nigripes. In this view I cannot 

 a«»ree with him ; differing as it does so greatly in habit and- habitat, while neither 

 exhibits a great range of variation. It is restricted to well shaded ravines, growing 

 in the beds of streams at elevations below 7000 ft. The fronds, numbering 4 or 5 or 

 more, form a circiilar tuft on the short erect rbizome. They vary in form from ovate- 

 lanceolate to acute-lanceolate, and the width of my broadest specimen is less than 

 half tbe length of the frond ; in the narrowest it is Itss than one-fourth. The texture 

 is thin and the upper surfaces of the partial rhachises and costae bear long-glandular 

 filaments. The colour of the frond in the fresh state is bright green, forming a 

 beautiful contrast-witb thedelicate pink tint "(purplish sometimes) " of therhachis 

 and stipe. It is no doubt near A. Clarkei, and apparently grows in similar situations, 

 but the fronds are broader and never root at the ends ''"' 



What Mr. Blanford styles long glandular filaments, and Colonel Beddome — 

 we.^k setce, are called in the " Synopsis Filiciim " — finn yellow spines or strigiU^. 

 They seem to me to be quite soft, broadening at the base, and decuiTent on the 

 veins. Their fmictiou seems to me to be — to bother pteridologists. 



24, A. Mackinnoni Hope, in Jom-n. Bot. March 1896, p. 124 : 



" Eh. quasi-erect, clothed, as is also the base of the stipe, ■nith bright 

 castaneous filiform scales. Sf. tufted, straw-coloured or pale 

 brown, glabrous except near the base, or with a few scattered 

 scales for some inches upwards, 8-20 in. long. Fr. sub-deltoid or 

 almost rhomboidal (lowest pan.' of pinnae slightly shorter than next 

 pan- above), 13-23 in. 1. (average of sixteen measm-ed — 18i in.) 

 by 8-18 in. br. (average of twenty nieasured — 12^ in.), bipinnate, 



