^62 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HtSTOttt SOCIETY, Vol. Xtt. 



and Kumaiin plants, seems to bs stouter, and sometimes to throw up fronds in 

 tafts ; but there are few examples with rhizomes attached. A Japan specimen 

 in Kew of A. S']U%migerum, from Hyachine, Faarie No. 13583, 24th 

 August 1894, differs somewhat, as to the frond, from his No. 8111 from the 

 Forests of Yubari in Yezo, mentioned above, wliich quite matches Duthie's 

 No. 14100 from Kashmir. On the same sheet with Faurie's No. 13583, is a 

 rhizome, some inches in length, which is black, creeping and branching, not 

 slender, with stipes in tufts ; but this is disconnected from the pale-coloured stipes 

 of the mounted frond, and the stipes itself is broken. Even supposing that 

 rhizome does not belong to that particular frond, it is valuable, as showing 

 that the rhizomes of the Japan and Kuraaun plants are the same. Of course, 

 great similarity, or even identity, of rhizome does not of itself prove identity of 

 species : some other cbiracters must agree. In the " Synopsis " ^. crenatum 

 is said to have stipes " scattered, firm, erect," which implies a widely- 

 creeping rhizome, but does not explicitly negative the supposition that it, like 

 the Asiatic plants, also at intervals throws up fronds in tufts. The amount of 

 •' lamina " in a frond of A. crenatum is much less than in either the Himalaya 

 or the Japan plants, and the sori seem never so long as in these : Baker says — 

 " oblong, usually nearly straight, often double," and as to A. squamigerum — 



" linear, curved the lowest 2 lln. long." But the involucres in Japiinese 



spechnens of A. squamigerum are often very broad in comparison with the 

 sori, and; as Mettenius said, membranaceous, tender, entire. 



r lately asked Dr. H. Christ, of Basel, an eminent pteridologist, whether he 

 could connect A. Kquamigerum with A. crenaium, giving him at the same 

 time particulars of the recent discoveries in the Himalaya, and he replied as 

 follows : — 



" J'ai le premier (A. crenatum, Eupr.) en echantillons nombreus du Nord : 

 finlande, Scandinavie : plante petite : 3rd dec. ptipe grcle : ecailles peu mom- 

 breuseSj mais larges : mires, segments pntit", sores athyi'ioides, com'ts : plante 

 fragile, rhizome presque filiforme, faible. 



*' J'ai la plante du Japon /. Faurie 11, 578 et 13,583 : toutes les dimensions 

 doubles ou triples : plants 6 Dec. et au deta, stipe jusqu' a 3 mill, en diametre, 

 ecall es brunes, lanceolees, nombreuses : segments grands, sores jusqu' a un 

 demi-centimetrc, souvent diplazoides, rhizome plus epais, rampant, mais il 

 semble que les stipes sont en peu en touffe et non solitaires comme dans la 

 plante du Nord. 



'* Le plus grand e'chantillon est celui de Tosa, 1. Maldmo : fronde de 50 

 cent, sans tige. 



'* Je crois que la plante de " Inde (que je n'ai pas vue !) doit etre la plante 

 du Japon, mais non la plante du Nord. Je ne nie pas la grande affinite des 



