250 Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 



( ; 



but I have specimens where the pinnae are gradually reduced ; the 

 involucre is ' reniform, or quite circular from the overlapping at 

 the sinus. Himalayas, Nepal to Bhotan, 7,500-11,000 feet elevation, 

 Bedd. F B. I. t. 40. — Nidus. Tufts very circular, fronds small, 

 lower pinnae a little reduced and deflexed, segments few, sori 

 scattered, but with a tendency to be apical. Sikkim, 9,000-12,000 

 feet. Bedd. F. B. I. Sup. t. 372. — Clarkei. Tufts circular, fronds 

 tapering much at the base, almost clown to the caudex ; much 

 smaller than the type, but quite running into it. Sikkim, 9,000- 

 11,000 feet. Bedd. Fern Sup. t. 371. Colonel Dyas sent this 

 from Dalhousie with the under surface 's ery fibrillose {vide specimen in 

 British Museum). — Fibrillosa differs only in having the under 

 surfaces of the pinnae copiously clothed with fibril' as. N. W. Hima- 

 layas, 9,000-12,000 feet from Kumaon to West Kashmir. 



Var. y elongata. {Hook and Grev. Ic. t. 234.) Fronds trun- 

 cate at the base, bi-tripinnate, or sometimes pinnate only in forms 

 from high elevations, ultimate segments generally narrowed upwards 

 from abroad base, rachises glabrous or scaly. Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 117. 

 Bedd. F. S. I. 112. Var. marginata, Clarke, plate 71. Aspid. 

 Canariense, A. Broivn. 



South India on the Western mountains, 4,000-6,000 feet ele- 

 vation; Ceylon; Himalayas and Khasya, 5,000-9,000 feet elevation. 

 Aspidium rigidum {Desv.) seems quite to run into this. Asp. 

 Schimperianum {Hochst) [intermedia, Bedd. F. S. 1. 1. 113], is only 

 a form at a higher elevation, 2-pinnate or 1 -pinnate, with often very 

 large sori; but it quite runs into the type. Nilgiris, higher elevations. 

 Himalayas, 7,000-12,000 feet. This can always be distinguished 

 from large forms of sparsa by the lower basal pinnules of the lowest 

 pinnae not being elongated. 



Var. 8 cochleata. {Don.) Fronds truncate at the base, 

 generally dimorphic, pinnate or sub-bipinnate in the sterile, bipin- 

 nate in the fertile ; involucres very large and completely covering the 

 under surface of the contracted fertile pinnules, but the broader 

 fronds are sometimes partially, or even wholly, in fructification ; 



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