5 
V, 
THE FERNS OF NOR TH- WES TER N INDIA. 
from the normal, due probably to difference of altitude or climate, but 
insufficient to prevent identification or to warrant separation as a species. 
To such “ forms ” separate numbers are not given. So-called varieties, 
when distinct enough from the so-called types to be separately describ- 
ed, and, so far as I know, constant as to characters, are given as species 
in the absence of any good reason why they should be given any less 
important a position. Most of these were originally named or described 
as good species by the collectors of them, but have afterwards been 
reduced by authors who have never seen them growing in their native 
habitats. In no such instance does there appear any evidence of 
origination by variation from another known species ; and the place as 
a variety seems in most cases to have been assigned either from a fancied 
resemblance to an old species, or merely because the plant, being of the 
same genus, has been observed or discovered, and described, subsequently 
to the date of the description of the so-called type plant. Such plants 
have been ranked as varieties long enough, and, having successfully 
passed a period of probation, may now be promoted to specific rank. 
As to most of them, the difficulty seems to me— not how to distinguish 
them from their so-called prototypes, but — how to think and write of 
them as being near these. Admitting, for the sake of argument, their 
origin by variation, they have become good and permanent species, 
showing no tendency to revert, and ought to be treated as specieir*^^- 
In two notable instances numerous varieties of plants have been setup 
by authors as growing in India, the types of which are expressly stated 
as not having been found in that region. Thus, after giving an elabo- 
rate description of Asplenium ( Aihyrium ) FUix-fowiim, Bernli. ( forma 
europcea ), apparently by himself, Mr. Clarke goes on to say that 
the typical form has not exactly been got in the Himalaj a, and to give 
no less than seven varieties ftf It, which have been got there, with a 
short description of each. In this case Colonel Bed dome, in his 
a Handbook,” follows Mr. Clarke almost verbatim , giving all seven 
varieties. At least two of these, A. Schimperi, A. Br., and A. pecti- 
natum, Wall., which have widely creeping and branching rhizomes or 
sarmenta and distantly springing fronds instead of the erect caudex and 
fasciculate vernation of A. Filix-famina , have been recognised as good 
species by Colonel Beddome in the Supplement to bis u Handbook.” 
In the other instance, that of Naphrodium (Lastrea) Filix-mas, Rich., 
