THE FERNS OF NORTH- WESTERN INDIA. 463 



the main rhachis has a pinnated costa with a row of sori on each side of it : 

 involucres rather fugacious. The auricles are sometimes themselves amiculate. 

 The scales on stipe are large, broad, dark-brown with lighter margins, or some- 

 times pale concolorous, mixed with which are pale fibrillose scales ; and both 

 kinds of scales extend up the main rhachis, dminishing in size upwards. The 

 costa and veins of the pinnse are, on the underside, to some extent clothed with 

 small fibrillose or chaffy scales, which, bemg inconspicuous, are liable to be 

 overlooked. These are quite different in shape and appearance from the much 

 smalJer round or ovate scales, which generally thickly cover the under surface of 

 A. marginatum. 



6. A. Obliquum, Don, Prod. Fl. Nep. 3. A. auriculatum, Sw. s, 

 A. obliquum, Don., Syn. Fil. 2nd ed. 493. A. auriculatum, Don., var. 3 

 mspiiosa, Wall. Cat. 367, CI. Rev. 507. Polysiichum auriculatum L., var- 

 .y ccBspitosum, Wall., Bedd. H. B. 204. F. B. I., t. 33. Plate XXVIJI C. 

 Punjab; Ckamoa—UaYi Valley 7,000', McDonell ; KuUu— 7 ,OQQ', Trotter, Coventry. 

 Simla Beg.— ahovQ Simla, Colonel Bates ; Edgew. 1834 ; near Simla 4,000' (2) Her- 

 schelj "very rare within my limits and area. I have found it but once, at 4,800'." 

 Blanf. in List. 



N.-W. P. : D. D. Dist. —Jannsar 7-8,000', Gamble ; Mussoorie 5-6,500', plentiful.in 

 several places on wet rocks in forest ; T. Garh.—KidaT Kanta Mt. 8-9,000', Herschel ; 

 Kumaun—near Naini Tal 6,000', Hope 1861, Levinge 1875. 



BiSTmB.-Asia : N. Ind-CHim.); Nepal WaUwh; Sikkim and Bhotan. Assam 

 — Khasia 3-4,000', very common ; N. Manipur 3,500', Clarke. 



The Stipes m this species are densely tufted, slender, and, except for a few 

 greyish brown scales near the base, extendmg a short distance up the main rha- 

 chis, are, with the rhachises and the surfaces of the frond, glabrous. The 

 plants vary much in size, according to situation and the degree of moisture they 

 are favoured with. 



Mr. Baker says—" Seldom above | ft. high": the other books give no dimen- 

 sions. I have fertile fronds with stipe and frond together less than 2 in. high 

 by I in. broad, and all sizes between that and a total height of 22 inches,*'of 

 which the stipes are 8—9 inches, and the fronds 12—13 in. long by 2— 2^'in. 

 broad. The shape and cutting of the pinnas vary very much, fi-om rhomboido- 

 ovate, nearly as broad as long, in small plants, to li in. long by i in. broad, 

 sharply, pointly and distinctly auricled at the base and greatly cut away on the 

 inferior side, in large plants. The pinnse are sometimes merely crenate, some- 

 times naiTOw and falcate, and the ban-en fronds are sometimes sharply toothed 

 at the end of every veinlet. The pinn^ are hardly ever distinctly lobed, and 

 occasionally they are in shape almost like the simple form of A. marginatum. 



The system of venation in A. oUiquum is the simplest in the whole group, 

 and in the absence of distinct lobes to the pinnse may best be described as- 

 pinnate on the costa, with vemlets forking once or twice. The venation is 



