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



^ in. Mr. Trotter said, in his " Ferns of the Punjab," (printed for private 

 circulation), under Ladrea ocMJwdes, Kze. — " The Punjab form is mostly var. 

 tylodes (Kze.) Hbk. p. 240, with the basal pinnaB suddenly (not gradually) 

 abortive and reduced to mere auricles." His Kumaun specimen (in my pos- 

 session) is a frond about 15 in. 1. by 7 in. br., with pinnas up to f in. br., and 

 there is no apparent stipes, the glands, or representatives of pinnas, running 

 down close to the caudes, which is erect with tufted stipes. 



It is curious that the intervals between the auricles or glands in this species 

 decrease in length near the caudex, in my large specimens at least, instead of 

 increasing as is the normal habit of a fern. The pinna? are cut down five- 

 sixths of the half width, thus leaving room for only one pair of veins to approach 

 those of the adjoining segments below the sinus, where they merge in a 

 thickened web which strengthens the base of the sinus. There are from 8 to 

 15 pairs of veins in a segment, according to the size of the frond, all simple, 

 and very conspicuous ; and all except the upper one or two pairs are soriferous 

 for half the length of the pinna, the apices of segments and pinnse gradually 

 becoming bare. The sori are small, closely costal in one row on either side, 

 the lower two or three pairs diverging : they are in large specimens didy- 

 mochlsenoid, or fadyenoid in shape, with the involucres persistent and longo- 

 hippocrepiform like the sori. The whole frond is very stout in texture, 

 glabrous and glossy — only the rhachises being somewhat pilose or downy. The 

 stipes and rhachises of large specimens are sometimes pinkish in colour, which, 

 with the deflexed lower pinnae, gives a resemblance to Polypodium eruhescms^ 

 Wall. 



Beddome, in his Handbook, said of this fern that he believed it quite 

 entitled to rank as a species : he had bobh it and N, ochthodes in cultivation 

 for many years, and said that Mr. Thwaites, who cultivated them in Ceylon, 

 considered them distinct species. But in the Supplement to his Handbook 

 Beddome says, under L. ochthodes — " Omit the Ceylon locality, Thwaites' fern 

 being Nephrodium extensum." As Colonel Beddome's field of cultivation was, 

 presumably, in the Madras mountains, I consider it proved that both oehtlwdes 

 and xyUdes have the same habit—" caudex erect, stipes tufted," for he could 

 not have cultivated them for many years without having observed the nature 

 of the caudex or rhizome ; and it is clear that be had not got N. repms. 

 Another inference from the passage quoted above is that Beddome maintains 

 Ceylon as a habitat for N. Xijlodes, though not for iV. ochthodes. Mr. G. Wall 

 seems to give only the former as a Ceylon plant, and says it is common in the 

 higher forests of the Central Province. A specimen of N. xijUdes collected by 

 Levinge in the Pulney Hills, Madras Presidency, has an erect caudex, with 

 tufted stipes, like Trotter's specimens from the Punjab and Kumaun. 



