tut: FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA. 725 



on, he referred to ii as ^. tylodes^ and subsequent authors peipetuated the mis- 

 take. Moore, in the unpublished MS. of his Index Filicum^ noted the 

 mistake' — as ISIr. Baker has shown me. 



Kunze's long description of Aspidium xylodes shows clearly that it is the 

 comparatively rare Indian plant, with sori close to the costa. The rhizome was 

 unknown to him, and he had not seen a complete stipes. He calls attention to 

 the " callus " at the base of the pinna, which is much longer than the " gland '* 

 in N. ochthodes. He says of this callus — '' adhuc ssepe neglecto, insignem . , 

 Hinc ultimo proxime affino nostrum differt : fronde firmiore, supra nitida est, 

 excepta costa supra, glabra, basi abrupte contracta ; soris non conjunctis, neo 

 margine approximatis, ad costam produotis, indusiis magnis, glabris, venis 

 omnibus apice incrassatis, rhachi subtus stipitisque glabriusculis sen glabris." 

 The gland or callosity is not visible on the upper aspect-, of the frond, and the 

 plana appears to be attached to both it and the rhachis of the frond. That the 

 '* callus " is remarkable, as Kunze said, is shown by the fact that in some 

 specimens it is all that — below the perhaps single pair of leafy auricles — 

 is left down nearly to the caudex to represent pinnae. In other speci- 

 mens there is just the merest trace of lamina besides the " callus." But I am 

 bound to state that a specimen in the Levinge collection, collected by him in 

 Sikkim in 1871, has butterfly auricles on the incomplete stipes. Another small 

 plant got by Mr. Levinge below Darjiling shows a section of an upright 

 caudex. 



This species grows to a very large size, as is shown even by the incomplete 

 specimens I possess and have seen. The breadth of frond in specimens found 

 by the Messrs. Mackinnon to the west of Mussooree is as much as 2^ feet ; and 

 the stipes is more than 2| feet in length. The pinnae are sub patent, the 

 lower few pairs becoming depressed,' — the lowest pair very much so, and nar- 

 rowed at the base, though the medial pinnte have the lower segments consider- 

 ably longer than those above : width of pinnse up to 1 j inches. Kunze says— 

 " Stipes, quam integrum non vidi, et rhachis basi saepe pennam anserinum. 

 crassitie aaqunt." The rhachis of one specimen I have is y% in. br. (where the 

 pinnae suddenly cease), as flattened by pressing ; and the auricled part below 

 that point — split to facilitate drying in the press — broadens downwards until 

 one-half is ^ in. and the other f in. wide, and these are not quite flat ; so that 

 the circumference of the rhachis near its base must have been more than 1| in., 

 and the diameter about '4 in. The size of the stipes I cannot estimate. 

 Mr. Trotter's specimen from the Punjab, in my possession, is very different in 

 size, but yet is unmistakably the same plant ; it is only 2 feet 1 inch in total 

 height, the rhachis am'icled (or glanduliferous) almost to the caudex, which is 

 erect, with stipes tufted : the frond only 6-7 in. br., and the pinnas only about 



