THE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA, 253 



Fz'om the last clause of the above, and also from what Blanford says in his 

 " List " as to the fronds varying from lanceolate to deltoid bnceolatCj I think 

 it evident that these three authorities included, under A. schimperi, A. rwpicola 

 Hope, though it has a very different root-stock. The rhizome, or sarmenium^ of 

 A. schimperi is widely creeping and branching, and, where its growth is not 

 impeded by circumstances, the fronds spring up quite apart ; but A. rupicola 

 grows in isolated plants : the cafidex is thick and erect, or sometimes procum- 

 bent, and the stipes are always densely tufted. 



The rhizome of A. schimperi is densely clothed with bright-brown narrowly 

 lanceolate-acuminate scales ; those at the base of stipe few, and darker in 

 colour. Blanford rightly says that the basal portion of the stipe is dark- 

 coloured, though i should say purplish brown, rather than deep purple. 

 Beddome rightly corrects Baker in saying that the frond is only bipinnate — 

 tripinnatifid, or sometimes only bipinnatifid. I have both these forms grown 

 on the same rhizome, and the cutting of their pinnules is very different. 

 Beddome is incorrect, I think, in saying that the frond is " lanceolate, 

 gradually reduced below " : the shape may be called broadly lanceolate-acu- 

 minate, somewhat truncate at base. : Blanford notices this. The rhachises of the 

 pinnse are winged, with an actual interruption of the wing only in well devel- 

 oped fronds ; and the pinnules are decurrent both ways on the rhachis, so 

 that the fern is only just bipinnate. Even in the largest Indian fronds the 

 wing is sometimes unbroken, and it is continuous in the reduced basal pinnffi 

 even when broken in those above. The basal pinnse are apt to be sterile, or 

 partly so, at their bases. 



The specimens of the African and Indian plants in Kew do not exactly agree ; 

 and I have noted that the only specimen in the Calcutta Herbarium so named 

 (before I picked out Indian ones in 1896), from T. Moore's Herbarium, ticketed 

 Africa, is different from the Indian plant iu cutting and that the pinnae arc 

 opposite. That specimen has no rhizome. But the Indian plant may stand 

 as A. schimperi until the African plant is better known. 



29. A. pectinatum, "Wall. Cat. 2 3 1, as to type sheet only. A. filix-^ 

 femina, Bernh. (an E. Indian form of), Syn, Fil. 228. A. JUioi-femina, var. 2,. 

 pectinata (sp.), Wall., 0. R. 492. Athyriurn JiUx-femina, var. 2, pectinatd, 

 Wall., Bedd. H. B. 169. Athyriurn pectimtum. Wall., Bedd. Suppt. H. B. 36. 



Punjab : Chamha — Ravi Valley, Sao Valley and elsewhere not si^ecified, Mc- 

 Donell ; Kangra V. ^.—4500', Trotter ; Simla Reg. — 4500-6000', common, in and 

 about Simla. 



N.-W. P. : D. D. Dist.—ln the Du— 2500', Mussooree 4-6000' : plentiful in several 

 places ; T. Qarh. 4-5000', Duthie, Gamble ; Kummm 4-7000', frequent. . ' 



DiSTKlB.— J.si« : N. Ind. (Him.) Bhutan 2-7000'; Bengal— Parasnath Mt. 4-4500', 

 T. r., C. B. Clarke^ F. H, Ward, in Herb. Rev. A. Campbell. 

 8 



