Prats 38. 
ASPLENIUM (§ EvaspLenium) anrernans, Wail. 
Alternate-lobed Spleenwort. 
ASPLENIUM (§ Euasplenium) alternans, Wall.; caudex short, copiously rooting, 
paleaceous with scales, as are often the very short stipes and base of the 
costa beneath; fronds ceespitose, about a span long, chartaceous, very 
opaque, pale rusty-green beneath, glabrous, lanceolate, scarcely acuminate, 
attenuated below, deeply and regularly pinnatifid throughout, lobes ovate- 
or triangular-oblong, with broad sinuses, obtuse, quite entire but subsinu- 
ated; veins subflabellato-dichotomous, all free; sori copious on all the 
lobes, in two rows, linear, erecto-patent, involucres entire. 
ASPLENIUM alternans. Wall. Cat. n. 221. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 3. p. 92. 
AspLenium Dalhousie. Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 105. Metten. Asplen. p. 147. 
Has. East India, Dr. Wailich, who remarks, “Patria dubia, Nepalia? an Rio 
Janeiro?” It is, however, I believe, in India, confined to North-west Hima- 
laya, and is found at elevations of not less than 6000 feet, in stony woods : 
Lady Dathousie, Strachey and Winterbottom (Kamoun), Edgworth, Col. 
Bates (Simla), Dr. Thos. Thomson and (Chumbra Hills), Jacquemont, n. 59, 
60, 61, and 62 (Herd. Nostr. from Herb. Paris), Dr. Fleming, Hugel, Hoff- 
meister. Abyssinia, Schimper, n. 288 (Herb. Nostr. from Herb. Paris).— 
Cultivated at Kew, where it was received from Mr. Sim’s extensive Fern 
Nursery, Foot’s Cray, Kent. 
This is a rare Fern; one of very few species of true Asplenium, 
which have regularly pinnatifid fronds, and it is remarkable for 
its great general resemblance to Asplenium (§ Hemidictyum) 
Ceterach of Linnzus, and of us in Sp. Fil. v. 3. p. 278, and in 
Brit. Ferns, pl. 36: so great indeed, that but for the entire ab- 
sence of the tawny scales which so densely clothe the under side 
of the last-mentioned species, it might, at first sight, easily pass 
for that plant. Here, however, on a close investigation, it will 
be found that the veins are all free and never anastomosing, and 
the involucres are sufficiently conspicuous. Except in North- 
western India and Abyssinia it appears to be unknown: in those 
countries it is found in dry, stony woods, such as our own Cefe- 
rach often affects. 
Pirate 88. Tuft of Asplenium (§ Euasplenium) alternans, Wall.,—anatural size, 
Fig. 1. Fertile segment,—magnified. Fig. 2. Portion of the same, showing the 
sori,—more magnified. 
OCTOBER lst, 1861. 
