470 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORr SOCIETY, Vol. XfV. 



'' Ireland, T>. Moore," and also, in pencil — '' A. Braunii, intermediate 

 between aculmtum and angular e^^' is pinned a note written by D. Moore, 



as follows : — 



" After considerable attention to Aspidium lobatum and A, aculeatum, 1 

 cannot think them distinct species, though I find they are still retained as 

 such by persons who have no doubt had equally good opportunities of judging* 

 Consequently I shall only state my own ideas on the subject at present, when it 

 appears to me they altogether depend on their places of growth for the slight 

 characters which distinguish them. Whenever I find the species growing in 

 Warm shady situations, it assumes the habit of aculeatumhj having the pinnule 

 slightly petiolate and generally larger. A little further up the mountain glens 

 it becomes lobatum good ; and when it is found very high the pinnules are 

 Bcarcely divided at all. A. angulare is equally common here *" (in Ireland ?) 

 "and a very distinct speciea. I should say there Were only two species, A, 

 lobatum or aculeatum^ whichever you like to call it, and A. angulare, both 

 rather variable, but their varieties are easily traced to tbe original.'' 



I understand Mr. Baker now to agree, substantially, that A. lobatum 

 is merely A. aculeatum in a less developed state ; though in the '* Synop- 

 sis " he said that the last mentioned plant is less coriaceous than is the 

 other ; and I therefore think I may safely allow the existence of A, 

 loiatum, as an Indian fern, to depend upon the existence there of A. 

 aculeatum. 



Dr. H. Christ, in a monograph — *'Zes differentes formes de Polystichum 

 aculeatum {L. sub. Polypodia), Lew Groiqnment, et Lew Dispersion, y 

 compris Les varieties Exotiqms, published in Bull. Bot. Soe. Suisses, 

 Livre III, 1893, has taken quite as wide a view of this group of Polys- 

 tichum as any of the botanists who have Written of Indian ferns ; but 

 his treatment of the subject is too deductive for me ; it seems only to 

 deepen the haze in which the subject has been enveloped by the profitless 

 effort to bring together under the specific name amleaiiim, given by 

 Linne, several plants which are abundantly distinct. 



In proceeding to deal with the North- West Indian material of this group 

 I shall, in the first place, divide it according to texture, into " coria- 

 ceous ", hard and tough plants, and " herbaceous", thin and soft plants ;• 

 and having thus cleared the way, I shall see whether any subdivision of 

 these two categories is necessary. I can find nothing I feel justified in 

 calling A. aculeatum, but much that I cannot say is not A. angulare.'] 

 A. Texture very coriaceous. Sp. II. 

 11. A. SquarrOSUm Don {rujo-barbatum Wall. Cat. 369) ; Syn. Fil 

 252 under A. amleatum Sw. A. aculeatum Sw., var. 2, rufo-barbatum (sp.) 

 Wall., C. R. 509. Polystichum aculeatum Sw., var, r rufo-barbatum WalL, 

 Beddin. B. 207, F. S.I.,t. 121. 



