i&Q JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV ^ 



it is then seen that they are very few in a group, and that the sori are gener- 

 ally placed on the short inferior veinlets of the groups which take off nearer 

 the costa than the margin, and that these veinlets seldom, if ever, go beyond 

 the sori— see Beddome's drawing, F. S, I., t. ]20. Occasionally the sori are 

 medial on a vein which reaches the margin. In A. marginatum the veinlets 

 are so numerous in the narrow groups that their number is not easily coimted 

 with a lens ; it appears, however, to be from five to seven, and all reach the 

 margin. All round the margin is a pale-coloured fringe, mucronately toothed 

 in correspondence with the veinlets, from which feature I conjecture Wallioh 

 named the plant. In A. auriculatwn I see no such margin. In both species 

 the auricle at base of pinn^ has a distinct cosfca or pinnated vein ; but in 

 A. marginatum, this auricle is broader and has more veinlets than in the other 

 species. Finally, though in A. auriciilatum large fronds are distinctly but 

 shallowly lobed or serrated in correspondence with the gToups of veinlets, even 

 the smallest in A. marginatum are generally so ; and in large fronds this is 

 carried so far that the frond becomes quite bipinnatifid nearly to the second- 

 aiy rhachis,— the distance between the groups of veins becoming greater in 

 order to admit of this. I first obiserved this in some of Mr, P. W. Mackin- 

 non's specimens from British Garhwal, which, when collecting them, I believe 

 he identified with the simple narrow form and named A. auriculaium, 

 var, 13 marginatum, Wall, or A. acuhatum, var. In one frond I have, 

 9 in. 1. by 2| in. br., the pinna3 are merely lobed, but in the lowest pair the 

 auricles are free to the midrib ; in another (apex wanting), probably 12 in. 

 by 8| in. the seven lowest pairs of pinna are cut down nearly to the rhachis 

 into rhomboidal-ovate segments, and the upper paii's are dimiinishingly cut. 

 In two other fronds, 15 and 16 in. 1. by 5 in. br., the auricles are quite free, 

 and the pmnse are less cut towards their acuminate apices, and towards the 

 apex of the frond. Each lobe, or segment, has a costa, and up to eight 

 veinlets on either side, which do not fork ; all run out to the margin. The 

 segments more or less overlap each other. There seems to be a small spinulose 

 tooth for every veinlet, and a larger stiff one for the principal vein of each 

 group. But none of these four fronds is fertile. I should when I received 

 them, have put the three last mentioned fronds under A. aculeatum, Swartz, 

 had not Mr, Mackinnon gathered them for A. marginatum, and but for 

 the characters given above, which agree with those for that species. A 

 specimen I have from Sikkim, collected by Mr. Levinge, has stipe 8^ in. 

 long, and frond lOi in, long by 2| in. wide near the base, with up to eight 

 pairs of distinct, toothed lobes in the pinnae, the lowest superior on the 

 lovirest pinna quite free. This has the characteristic metalHc sheen and other 

 peculiarities above described. 



