THE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA. 261 



Pending the collection of furtlaer material in the Himalaja, I have given 

 up the attempt to differentiate the three forms, and I give the following de- 

 scription which is intended to cover all the Indian specimens : — ■ 



" Rhizome more or less slender, widely creeping and branching, black, 

 sanding up fronds 1 inch, more or less, apart, stipes sometimes in clusters. 

 Stipes up to 1 foot or more long, slender but wiry, their bases clothed with 

 very dark brown large lanceolate-acuminate scales, extending a short way 

 up the stipes and then becoming scarce. Rhachis with a few scattered scales 

 the same as those at the base of the stipes, but smaller, and with tufts of linear 

 scales in the axils. Froni subdeltoid, bipinnate. Pinnoc markedly petio- 

 late, about 13 pairs besides the acuminate pinnatifid apex— lower 5-— 6 pairs 

 almost opposite, lanceolate-acuminate, lowest If — 2 in, br., 2 inches 

 apart, all distant. Pinnules \0 — 11 pairs besides the crenate apex, distant, 

 paten^, deeply cut into rectangular rounded segments towards the base, and 

 crenated towards the acumluate apsx, margins scarcely toothed. Veins- — 3 — 5 

 pairs in a segment, curved and often forked. Sori ^J- — ^^ inches long, very 

 narrow, curved like the veins, up to five in number in lower segments and in 

 others one on each lowest anterior veinlet, pointing to the sinus between 

 the segments, and forming a row curving outwards on each side of the 

 costa : some of the lowest diplazoid, or semidiplazoid. Involucres persistent, 

 and sometimes much broader than the soms." 



Mettenius's description was written from a fragment collected in Japan by 

 Siebold : it l^egan — " Rhizoma ? ", and ended—" indusium membranaceum 

 tenerum integerrimum, " 



Mr. Baker's description in the Synopsis is : — 



''238 N. [Dipl.) squamigerum, Mett. ; st. 6 ins. or mor^. long, straw- 

 coloured, slender, with small scattered, nearly black lanceolate scales throughout ; 

 /;■. 12 — 15 ins. long by nearly as broad, deltoid, lower pinnge 6 — 9 ins. long, 

 2 — 2 J in. broad pinnate except at the apex ; pinnules 1^ ins, long, f ins, 

 broad, the point blunt, the eige broadly lobed, the lower lobes | in. broad 

 entire; to/we herbaceous ; racJds slender, stramineous, chaffy below; veins 

 subflabellate, the lower veinlets of the lobes with one or two lateral curved 

 forks on each side ; sori linear, ouvved, falling far short of the edge, the lowest 

 2 H:). long. Mett. Fil. Ind. 2, p. 239." 



" Hab. — "Japan, Oldham^ Siehold^ Robinson." 



Asplenium (Athyr.) crenatum Rupr. resembles A. {Di^nl.) sijmmi' 

 gerum in having a black creepmg rhizome, and broad ovate-lanceolate 

 dark-coloured scales at the base of the stipes ; and also in the crenate 

 pinnules. The rhizome of some specimens of the Kashmir plant is 

 almost as slender as that of A. crenatum j that of others, and of the Japan 

 9 



