234 NEW MANIPUR FERNS COLLECTED BY DR. WATT. 



tracing of the drawings kindly sent ine by Dr. 0. Nordstedt. My 

 remarks therefore are founded on the description given in the * Obs. 

 crit.' and on the drawings alluded to, as well as on a partial com- 

 parison of Shetland and Swedish examples with the allied species. 

 The most marked character which separates C. polymorpha from 

 the other species of eit-Callitriclie is the great length of the stigmas. 

 In all the species these are greatly longer than the ovary in the 

 early state ; but in none are they more than about one-half longer 

 (C. hamulata) than the ripe fruit, except in C. polymorpha. In this 

 the stigmas are, according to Lonnroth, 3-4 times as long as the 

 mature fruit, while the bracts are also persistent. In the few un- 

 injured fruits which remain on my single sheet of the Shetland 

 plant the stigmas are 2|-3 times as long as the fruit. The Shet- 

 land plant, generally, bears a resemblance to C. staynalis; but the 

 fruit is smaller, and " scarcely winged,'* while the individual carpels 

 are longer in proportion to their breadth than in that plant. The 

 fruits seem to be much the same size as those of C. hamulata, 

 though figured as being smaller by Lonnroth, who considered the 

 position of G. polymorpha to be between C. vernalis and 0. hamulata. 

 The size and shape of the bracts and other floral parts in the 

 earlier states appear to afford good characters, but I hesitate to say 

 anything on this part of the subject from want of experience. 

 I hope that the above brief notes will be sufficient to enable the 

 plant to be recognised, if found ; and I may say that it adds greatly 

 to the certainty of determinations if a few stems bearing ripe fruits 

 with perfect stigmas be selected from each gathering, and dried 

 separately, with extra care, on white paper. 



NEW MANIPUR FERNS COLLECTED BY DR. WATT. 



By Col. K. H. Beddome, F.L.S. 



Aspidium (Lastbea) Wattii, n. sp. — Rhizome ? Stipes stra- 

 mineous, 4-5 in. long, clothed with a few light-coloured deciduous 

 scales ; fronds 1 ft. or more long by 2-2^ in. broad, tripinnate, 

 broadest in the centre, gradually narrowed towards the apex and 

 base ; rachis naked ; texture subcoriaceous ; surfaces glossy ; ulti 



sgments 



more 

 forked in 



i < " *vuuut'u apex more or less z-iouea ; veins i-iorueu m 



the ultimate segments ; sori apical on the short lower veinlet, often 

 furnished with a few deciduous hair-like scales.— Manipur, Dr. W«tt, 



No. 6715. 

 This 



trembles feemcula 



T ^, M ujuuu resemmea juMiCHiaceum- in its umuiaue uuiw"g 



and texture, but it is much less compound, with long narrow fronds. 

 L have not detected an indusium in the few specimens I have seen ; 

 but I feel certain that it is an Aspidium, and that its position is near 

 fceniculaceum. In my 'Handbook' I followed Mr. Clarke, and re- 

 moved Aspidium fmiiculaceum to the genus Diacalpe, I have lately 

 received young fronds of it from Mr. Levinge, collected at Tonglu, 



