62 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII . 
mention the nature of the caudex or rhizome. As synonyms, Beddome gave in 
the H. B. the three names he had given for P. paludosum , namely, P. 
br unmum. Wall. Cat. 333, P. longipes , Wall, Cat. 316, and P. adnatum , Wall. 
Cat. 328 ; and he added a fourth, P. Griffithii , Hook. Sp. Fil. 
IV, 236. Mr. Clarke gives paludosum and longipes as synonyms of 
P. distans , and resuscitates P. adnatum as a variety of it, and he 
gives P. brumeum as a synonym of var. adnata (sp.), Wall., besides creating two 
other new varieties. Of Pi distans he said — “ Stipes tufted.” 
Hooker, in Sp. Fil . IV, p, 244, did not give P, distans either as a species 
or as a synonym of P. paludosum , and as to the caudex of the last named 
plant merely said — “ caudex ? ”. The Synopsis Filicum says nothing as to 
the caudex of P. distans , for which it gives P. paludosum , Bl., as a synonym 
along with P. Griffithii , Hook., of which it is said that it appears to be a form 
with subentire lobes. Clarke said of P. distans — 4i Very difficult to distinguish 
from Gymnogramme aurita , Hook.” (which has an extensively creeping rhizome) 
. . . ‘‘the rhizome is rarely present in herbaria ;” and he noted that Beddome, 
in his Suppt. F. B. I. of 1876, p. 24, doubts if G. aurita is more than a form 
of P. distans. And Clarke went on to say- — ‘‘ the rhizome is very different,” 
which I think may be taken to imply that he knew that P. distans had an 
erect caudex or rhizome. By the time he published his Handbook, Beddome 
seems toJhave become satisfied of the generic distinctness of the two plants. 
So much for the books I am reviewing. I will now deal with the specimens 
in the principal public herbariums in the United Kingdom. In the Kew Her- 
barium^ specimen, named P. distans , collected by Jacquemont, which otherwise 
is P. late-repens , has no rhizome, but the base of the stipes is curved upwards, 
as if it sprung from a horizontal Ifhizome. Other specimens in Kew with erect 
caudices will be found referred to above under P, distans. Some of them 
collected by Mr. Clarke show well the erect caudex and tufted stipes of 
P. distans , and his var. minor. 
In Wallich’s collection, in the Linnean Society’s Herbarium, there are 
specimens of the three species, which have been treated by our authors as 
synonyms for P. distans. Of P. brumeum Wall. Cat. 333, specimens from 
Kumaun, R. B. 1827, and Wallich, Napalia 1821, though they are without 
caudices, I should from their cutting put under P. distans. The next sheet, I 
should say, is certainly large P. late-repens ; the stipe is nearly complete, 
but there is no rhizome : it is ticketed “ Poly podium doubtful,” but has 
been numbered in pencil 333. Polypodium longipes, Wall. Cat. 316, 
Napalia 1821, though there is no rhizome, is certainly P. late-repens. “ P. 
adnatum , Wall, in Herb. 1823, Napalia 1821,” is very large late-repens. 
