126 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XlV. 



as an Indian fern, though a rare one. I have smce found oLher Indian 

 specimens of the typical plant at Kew. IVlost of the seven varieties which 

 Clarke adopted or set up have aheady been upset or reduced to other species of 

 Athyrium, and his var, 1, dentigera {Polypodium drntigerum^ Wall. Cat. 334), 

 I cannot distinctly separate from the tj'pe, the only real differences being in 

 the shape of the pinnules, which are more equal-sided and less pointed than are 

 those of the type, and in the cutting of the segments, which in dentigerum are 

 always sharply toothed. I have seen the latter plant growing in the Simla 

 iJegion, and at first I thought it was distinct ; but I had no living specimens 

 of the type with which to compare it. The type plant has not yet been found 

 in the Simla Region by me or by any other collector in recent times ; though 

 there is a specimen of Dr. Thomson's in Kew marked as from Hattu Mountain. 

 Without taking into account sports and cultural varieties, there is so much 

 variation in individuals of A. Filix-femina found in Em'ope, that I could not 

 expect European pteridologists to agree with me were I to separate A. dentigerum \ 

 but the fact remains that it is the common Himalayan plant, and that it does 

 not vary, except in size. The smaller, and sometimes narrower-fronded, plants 

 are Clarke's var. attenuata of the type. 



26. A. rupicola, n. sp. Plate V. (See Part II., p. 531.) 



27. A. Duthiei, Bedd. in Jom-n. Bot. vol. XXVII., No. 315, Mar. 

 1889, p. 72 ; Baker in Ann. Bot. Vol. V., No. XVIII. Bedd. Suppt. H. B. 

 24, under Athjrium. Plate XXV, 



I quote Colonel Eeddome's description : — 



" Athyrium Duthiei Bedd. Eliizome wide-creeping, black, nearly naked ; 

 stipe 3 — 4 in. long, furnished with a few ovate or lanceolate 

 deciduous scales, glabrous, pinkish ; fronds naiTow, ovate-lanceolate, 

 about 12 in. long by 3 — 4 in. broad ; pinnaj lanceolate, alternate, 

 about 20 on each side ; lower ones gradually reduced, the central 

 ones 1^ — 2 in, long, I — | in. broad, pinnatified nearly or quite 

 to the rhachis into sharply-toothed obovate or lanceolate lobes 

 about two lines broad ; texture herbaceous ; rhachises glabrous, 

 pinkish, furnished with a few deciduous large lanceolate scales ; 

 both surfaces glabrous ; veinlets forked ; sori asplenioid or hippo- 

 crepiform, 6 — 8 to each pinnule or lobe, i. e., 3 — 4 on each side 

 on the lower veinlets midway between the edge and the midrib. 



" Collected by Dr. Duthie in the N.-W. Himalayas, No. 389, 

 Gangotee " (Gangotri ?), near the source of the Ganges, No. 392 

 under Brikanta 12-13,000'. Na. 3667, at RWam Glacier, Kn- 

 maun, 12-13,000'. 



