428 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
leaved plant to build im, simply laid the nest loosely between the twigs, with- 
out any attempt at sewing. In No, 2, having selected a thick-leaved plant, 
they have made a regular tailor-bird’s nest, using cotton freely to stitch the 
nest to its supports and to make one of the leaves serve as a covering for it, 
The birds deserted the first nest after two eggs had been laid. In nest No. 2 
three eggs were laid and hatched out. Note also in No. 2 how the thick leaf 
has begun to sprout from the punctures made for the stitches, 
G. W. VIDAL, I.CS. 
Poona, 4th September, 1893. 
No. III.—THE GENUS PSILOTUM, Sw., IN INDIA. 
A note in this Journal (vol, VII, p. 544) by Dr. Dalgado records the occurrence 
of this genus in Savantvadi, This is by no means the first record for India, 
even if it be the first for Bombay. The earliest publication of Indian 
localities is in the Cat. of Plants dist., by the Hon'ble the E. I. Coy. (1828), 
where it is recorded from Nepal, 8. India, Ava and Penang. Specimens from 
all these places were distributed from the Company's Herbarium in that 
year, 
There are two species of the genus, and as the note referred to may induce 
members to look for the one there described, it seems worth while to state 
wherein the two differ, as in the search for one it is not impossible that both 
may be discovered. 
Both Psilota are plants with short wiry root-stocks emitting stems that are 
simple below but copiously dichotomously branched upwards and that have 
minute leaves laxly disposed throughout their length. In the axils of rudi- 
mentary leaves (bracts), rather smaller than the leaves proper, are placed. all 
along the branches, single, free, top-shaped spore-cases slightly hollowed 
(umbilicate) at the apex. These spore-cases (sporangia) are three-lobed and 
three-celled ; they split vertically down the centre of each lobe to permit the 
escape of the oblong, somewhat curved, one-ribbed spores, 
Seventeen different forms of Psilotum have been named and described, but 
these arrange themselves into two groups and, within each group, pass into 
one another by all sorts of intermediate forms. One of these groups has 
three-cornered, the other has two-edged, branchlets ; the branchlets in this 
second group are flattened out and have a distinct rib down the middle. In 
the first group the spore-cases and the leaves are in three rows corresponding 
‘to the angles, in the second group they are in two rows corresponding to the 
edges, of the branchlets, 
Some members of the first group have the angles so indistinctly marked 
that the branches are practically round ; some members of the second group 
have the branches so narrow that their two edges with the strong midrib, 
