38 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY , Vol.XII. 
Afr. : Sierra Leone— near Free Town, //. H. Johnston. S. Afr.; Madagascar ? (iV. 
lonyicuspe, Baker). 
In giving habitats for this fern I am obliged greatly to assume from their 
other characters what sort of rhizome many herbarium specimens must have had. 
As already said, under N. prolixum, Baker, I have seen no plants of this section 
from North-West India with an erect caudex and tufted stipes. I should now 
add — except of the next species N. xylodes , Kze. In the Synopsis nothing is 
saidas to the rhizome of N. prolixum , Baker, though that is sometimes the most 
important part of a fern ; nor does Willdenow mention that of his Aspidium 
prolixum. Nor does Clarke say anything as to rhizome, but says — “ tufted, ” 
meaning stipes in tufts, which I consider to imply that the caudex is thick 
and erect or suberect. Beddome is bolder, and in giving Lastrea ochthodes, 
of which he says N. prolixum , Baker, is a synonym, he writes — “ Caudex erect, 
stipes tufted/’ And among all the specimens in the Kew Herbarium, named 
N. ochthodes and N. prolixum , there is not one with an erect caudex, and I 
think only one with a creeping one, namely, Mr. Clarke’s No. 44652, collected 
at Shillong 6100', 6-9-86 ; and to the fact of the creeping rhizome Mr. 
Clarke has called attention, as though it were an abnormality. 
On referring to Kunze’s description of Aspidium ochthodes , I find he 
sa y S — “ Rhizoma juvenile tantum observavi,” and of A. xylodes he says only— 
“ rhizomate. . . . . ” As to the shape of the frond, Kunze says A. 
ochthodes differs from A. xylodes among other particulars in having “ bad 
sensim altenuata and A. xylodes from the other, thus — “ bad abrupta con- 
tractu” Kunze’s JN. ochthodes , therefore, has a frond gradually attenuated at the 
base, and not suddenly reduced to mere auricles as in JY. repens and N. xylodes 
Hooker in the Species Filicum , IY, p. 109, gives No. 87 N. ( Lastrea ) 
ochthodes , Hook., and for description a verbatim copy of Kunze’s ; and then — 
<4 var. a, frond much attenuated at the base by the dwarfing of the pinnae. 
Aspidium ochthodes , Kze. in Linnaea, XXIV, p. 282. Mett. Aspid., p. 82 ; 
var. 3., the lowest pair (several pairs) suddenly abortive, reduced to large 
tuberculated glands. Aspid. tylodes , Kze., in &c. ; Mett. Aspid., p. 82, vix ab 
Aspid. oehthode diversum videtur. Aspidium glanduliferum , Wall. Cat. 347.” 
Wallich’s type sheet of No. 347, Aspid. glanduliferum , Wall. “ Napalia 1821, : ” Q 
is the nlant I take to be iV. prolixum , Baker, with pinnae gradually reduced 
in length below and broadening into butterfly-shaped auricles : there is no 
rhizome : the stipe, though incomplete, is 30£ in. 1. ; and there are about 19 
pairs, of auricles diminishing in size to a mere trace only. Baker’s N. pro- 
.lixum is said to have a prominent gland at the base of the pinnse. I can see 
no glands on an. specimens of H . repens. 
