i72 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XtV. 



A. amhatum Sw. He says — " 6. A. sqmrrosum, fronde lanceolata bipinnata ; 

 foliolis piuuisque alterqis sabsessilibus oblongo-ovatis muoronatis rigidis glabris 

 nitidisque." ..." Polypodium spinulosum, Hamilton M. S., nee aliorum. 



. . " Frons ampla, rlgida, tectu aspera." Don's fem was, fcherefore, 

 bipinnafce, mucronate, rigid, smooth and shining, but rough to the touch. 



Punjab : Cflamba—6(iQQ' McDonell; Kangva Vy. Bid. — Dharmsala 6000', Trotter ; 

 KiiJlu 6—8000', Coventry ; Mandi State 7000', Trotter ,■ Simla Beg. 5500'— 8000', 

 common, Hope^ Gamble Blanf ., Duthie, Blis3, Lace. 



N.-W. P. : D. D. Dist. — Jaunsar 5500' and upwards, Sundar L^, C. G. Rogers, 

 Gaijimie; Mussooree 5-6500', very common ; 1\ Garli. aboTe Dhaidra, Duthie''s colln. 

 18-79, Ganges Vy. 7-8000', and Phedi, Duthie ; Eumaun—com.ra,on 5-8500', S* k W., 

 Hope, Davidson, Trotter, Macleod. 



DiSTEiB. — Asia : N. Ind. (Him.) — Nepal, Sikkim and Bhotan. Assam — Jakpho.. 

 Mt.; Kohima 6000', Clarhe. 



Occasionally the whole of the scales and fibrils or stipes and rhachis are 

 brown and not rufous, faded perhaps. The cutting of the ultimate segments 

 the coriaceous shiny nature of the frond, and the stiff mucronate epinea 

 sufficiently distinguish this species from the other Himalayan plants which 

 have been called A. aculeatim and A. migulare. The plant produces numerous 

 fronds annually, grows to large bushes, and is evergreen in spite of frost and 

 snow in winter. Sori are generally wanting on the lower third or quarter of 

 the frond, but often also on the upper part. The involucres sometimes over- 

 lap each other. 



I cannot follow Clarke and Beddome, when they say — '* frond usually 

 reddish." The rhachises and cost^ are covered below with the red beard from 

 which Wallich named the plant ; but the small fibrils on the veins are not 

 enough to colour the surface of the pinnules, and the upper surface is either 

 quite glabrous, or has only a few fibrils on the costa. 



I think what Clarke calls A. aculeaimn, var. 1, Johata (sp.) Engl. Bot., 

 must be the very narrow form ol A. sqiiarrosum of which I have specimens 

 from the Simla Region, Jaunsar, and Tehri Garhwal, The pinnules are small^ 

 simple, ogival at apex, very close together, and imbricated, and are less dis- 

 tinctly stalked than in the normal form — reduced to lobes in the upper part. 

 The scales and fibrillaa are brown rather than rufous ; and the texture is rather 

 thicker than in the type, and the fronds dry a brown colour. In all other res- 

 pects the plant is identical with the present species, and is antithetical to the 

 so-called A. lobatum of European botanists. 



B. Texture Jwrhaceous. 

 12. A. annulare, Willd. Sp. PI. ISIO V. 257 ; " Frondibus bipinnatis, 

 pinnulis oblongis subfalcatis mucronato-sen-atis sursum auriculatis, infima elon- 

 gata subpinnatifida, stipite rachibusque paleaceis. W. Habitat in Hungaria, 



