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 outUne ; pinnse 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 pinnae 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, niargin more or less fimbriate. 
Aspidium macrocarpum, Bl. En. Fil.Jav. 162. K's>\)\Qnmm, Hook. 
Syn. Fil. p. 227. Bedd. F. S. I. t. 152 and 153. A. squarrosum, 
Wall. Cat. 7,^6. 
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. /?, 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. /5. i-piNNATA. {Clarke.) Fronds hnear; pinnae short, slightly 
crenate, in shape much like some forms of the Polystichum auricu- 
la tum. 
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. 
