TEE FERNS OP NORTH-WESTERN INDIA. 739 



tint of green. There is a great resemblance between N. odontoloma^ Moore, and 

 N. pallidum, Bory; and some specimens of Dr, Aitchison's from Afghanistan, 

 which I at first refen-ed to odontoloma, may be pallidum, if these are distinct 

 species. There is a whole plant of his, No. 45''», " Shand Toi ravine, Aspidium 

 Filix-mas 31-5-79," which is exactly Clarke's Assam nor malts, small and 

 simple in cutting, but very pallid. Mr. Baker has marked this—" doubtful— 

 between rigidum and Fdix-mas.'" Under rigidum, which he seems to have 

 erroneously introduced into the Flora of India, Mr. Clarke says — " Some of 

 the Indian examples exhibit the whitened appearance of N, pallidum, Bory ; 

 and Sir W. J. Hooker has written that name on oue of them. Some forms 

 included by me under N. Filix-mas, var. 2, normaUs above, become 2-pinnate, 

 and I can draw no line between them (Khasi examples) and N. rigidum." 

 From this it would appear that the large N.-West Himalayan form of N. odon- 

 toloma grows also in Assam ; but Mr. Clarke gives no dimensions, and his 

 figure is of the small form. 



Later on, after a discussion.. Mr, Baker allowed me to pick out. of all these 

 wrappers the specimens I reduced to normaUs, alias AT. odontoloma, Moore, 

 and Mr. Clarke pinned adflitional tickets on them, bearing that name, on my 

 responsibility. Colonel Beddome, in his Supplement, under Lastrea F.-mas, 

 var. odontoloma, Moore, makes no mention of this re-sorting done at Kew ; but 

 under Lastrei spinulosa var. remota, he seems to refer to specimens of N. odon- 

 toloma I contributed to Kew when he says—" Mr. Hope has also sent speci- 

 mens to Kew, gathered at the base of the Himalayas, in which the pinnules are 

 much less cut than in the type, which have been referred to rigida, var. pallida." 

 The specimens I sent, whioii are admitted by Clarke to be his var. normaUs, 

 well developed, were not gathered at the base of the Himalaya, but over the 

 outer ridge of the range at an elevation of about 6,300 feet, and no specimen 

 of this plant has ever been got at the base of the Himalayas. 



Large specimens of JV. odonbloma, Moore, and also of Aspidium marginatum. 

 Wall, are quite bipinnate in the lower half : N. F.-mas is never bipinnate. 

 Nephr odium elongafum (Sw.), Hook. & Grev., is somewhat like N. odon- 

 toloma, and very unlike F.-mas. It is not bipinnate, and the lowest two pairs 

 of piiinfe, which are not much shorter than those above them, are less bipinnate 

 than the third and fourth pairs are. 



21. N. ramosum, Hope, in Joum. Bot., March 189(1, p. 126. — 

 *' Rhizome procumbent " ^plants isolated), " ligneous, densely clothed, as are the 

 bases of the stipes, with large, broad, suddenly-acuminate hair-pointed pale- 

 brown self-coloured scales. Stivei^ 6-17 in. 1., stout, pale-brown or straw- 

 coloured, sometimes mottled. Frond 10-24 in. long by 8-13 in. br., bipinnate 

 in lower part ; rhachises slightly winged in upper pinnae ; lowest pinnae as 

 long as or longer than the next above, and the lowest four or five pairs but 



