Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 165 



Himalayas from Kashmir to Bhotan, common in many places. 

 (Also in North America, Canada, Amur land.) 



6. Athyrium macrocarpum. (Blume.) Stipes 6-9 inches 

 long, firm, erect, straw coloured, scaly below ; fronds up to three feet 

 long, generally lanceolate in outline ; pinnae 20-30 pair, very variable 

 in size and cutting, sometimes less than one inch long, and only 

 pinnatifid, usually about four inches, and sometimes 9-10 inches 

 long, again pinnate, with the pinnules deeply pinnatifid, and as large 

 or much larger than the whole pinna; in the less compound forms ; 

 texture herbaceous, shining, striate beneath the lowest lobe on the 

 upper side often larger ; margin toothed ; involucres very large, often 

 reniform (as in Lastrea), but always mixed with some that are linear 

 (asplenioid), and horseshoe-shaped, margin more or less fimbriate. 

 Aspidium macrocarpum, Bl. En. Fil.Jav. 162. Asplenium, Hook. 

 Syn. Fil. p. 227. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 152 and 153. A. squarrosum, 

 Wall. Cat. 356. 



South India, very common on the Western Mountains, above 

 3,000 feet ; Ceylon ; Himalayas, Gurwhal and Bhotan 2,000-9,000 

 feet ; Khasya ; Birma and the Malay Peninsula. 



Clarke's variety, Atkinsoni, is one of the simplest forms, and is 

 very common on the Nilgiris, mixed with the more compound ex- 

 amples and connected by intermediate forms. Beddome's macro- 

 carpum, var. ft, F. S. I. t. 153, is at first sight very distinct looking, 

 and is often collected as a Lastrea; it is, however, only a state in 

 which the fructification is less and the lamina of the frond more 

 developed than usual. 



(Also in Malay Islands^ China and japan.) 



Var. j8. e-pinnata. {Clarke.) Fronds linear; pinnae short, slightly 

 I rebate, in shape much like some forms of the Polystichum auricu- 

 latum. 



Khasya, 3,000-4,000 feet. I have only seen this in Mr. Clarke's 

 collection, and it looks distinct from any of the simpler forms of 

 macrocarpum from Southern India, the pinnae being much less cut. 



