THE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA . 
19 
This fern grows near the highest range of C, rufa , Don, and at about 
the lowest range of G. albo-margimta , Clarke, which two species are very 
unlike each other in general appearance and habit, perhaps agreeing only in- 
having two sorts of fronds, differing as above described. It is much larger 
than G. rufa> and has the general appearance of very large plants of G. albo- 
margimta , except that none of its fronds are deltoid as some of those of the 
other , species are ; but it bears fronds some of which might be referred to one 
species and some to the other, and, as I caiinot refer it as a whole clearly to 
either, I give it an independent name. It may be a hybrid between C. albo- 
marginata and G. rufa . 
Colonel Beddome says (Handbook, p. 94), under G. rufa—* Very near the 
last species ” (G. albo-margimta) “.only tomentose. I have some specimens 
from GarhwaL I hardly know which to refer to, the tomentum being present , 
but very sparse ; the difference between the two is only a question of the 
tomentum, and both may well be varieties of farinosa T I lived for sixteen 
years in Dehra and Mussooree in the midst of these species of Ghnlanthes , 
and I must say I know of no three species of any genus which are more 
markedly separate in character and general appearance than these three are. 
G. farinosa , in those parts at least, never varies, and is as typical rihen growing 
io the Raspana Valley at Raj pur alongside of G. rufa as it is many miles south 
of any known habitat of that fern. G . albo-margimta looks quite a different 
plant when growing in exposed rock crevices, or on walls, from itself growing 
in soil and shade, but it is always clearly distinguishable from G. rufa. G. rufa 
is always spread out flat on the face of the rock in which it is rooted, though 
occasionally it grows in soil above or below rocks. I think I have never seen 
G. farinosa rooted in rock. I do not think Colonel Beddome has ever seen 
G. rufa growing. He has probably b?en misled by the fact that both that 
species and C. albo-margimta are somewhat dimorphous, though where the 
resemblance of either to C. Jarinosa is I cannot see. 
Genus 20 — ASPLENIUM, Linn . 
Subgenus — A thykium, Roth, 
22. Asplenium tenellum, n. sp. — Allantodia ienelia % Wall, in Herb. 
1821, under Asplenium tenuifrons, Wall. Cat. No. 206. Plants isolated, 
10 — 22 in. high, according to age ; caad., erect, small : st. tufted ; 
or, if constrained, procumbent, and stipes springing in close longitudinal 
sequence : a few lanceolate-acuminate brown scales on base of stipes ; st., 
except close to base, naked, slender, sometimes nearly equalling the 
frond in length ; fir. broadest at middle or below it, narrowing slightly 
towards the base and rapidly towards the acuminate apex, bipinnate, 6 — 13 in. 
