66 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HISTOR T SOCIETY , FoZ. X/i. 
? Nephrodium microstegium, Hk. Sp. Fil. IV., 119, t. 250. Ceylon, 
Gardner, No. 1151, V. S. Throughout India, Wall, Hook, and 
Thoms. 
“ What can Griffithii be ? 33 (This query is added in pencil.) 
Finally, in the Levinge collection, in the Museum of Science and Art, 
Dublin, I have found a specimen, named P. distans , Don, from Garhwal, 
Levinge 1872, but on the ticket of which Mr. Levinge has written— “ rootstock 
creeping widely. 3 ’ The frond of this specimen measures 4 ft. by 15-J in., but 
no stipes has been preserved. On the other hand, see Mr. Levinge 3 s specimen 
with ‘‘ tufted rootstock, 33 cited b\ me under P. distans. 
Mr. Trotter and I, after co; responding in India on the subject of this fern 
(see his remarks above), in the end agreed that it was a Poly podium, and, from 
its peculiar rhizome, entitled to specific rank. I asked Mr. Trotter to describe it, 
and in June 189 L he sent me the description given at the outset of this article. 
He said the description had been prepared, after repeated examination, to 
cover every single specimen in his collection. I have given it almost 
verbatim . 
P. late-repen s, like Nephrcdinm ripens, Hope, is a lover of water, and I 
collected it nrst f rom swampy ground near Simla, where it was flourishing on a 
muddy, shaly talus. Tire rhizome and stipes were very succulent and brittle, 
and. with the scales, beautifully coloured— rather, perhaps, mauve than dark 
purple, as Mr. Trotter has it. The size and cutting of the fronds depend, of 
course, on the degree and luxuriance of growth of the plant. The sori are often 
oval. Hooker’s remark that the frond of P. paludosum is invariably bipinnate 
does not apply to P. late-repens , the segments (or pinnules) of which are almost 
invariably united at the base, or decurrent on a winged rhachis (only in one of 
my numerous specimens does the wing appear to be interrupted); but at first 
sight some other specimens seem bipinnate. Blanford seems to have known the 
two plants, but yet to have placed them both as P. distans . He 
said : — 
“ Common in ravines, down to my lowest level (4500'), and up to nearly 
10,000'. At the former limit the fronds are small and narrow, with 
short, distant pinnm, and the rootstock decumbent, hardly creeping. 
Above 7500' the fronds grow to 3 and 4 feet in length, broadly lanceo- 
late, and with close-set pinnse 2 inches broad ; the pinnae cut down 
square to a winged rhachis, segments deeply pinnatifid. Some speci- 
mens of these latter have a creeping rhizome. 33 
Something might be inferred as to the nature of the plant named by Don, 
P. distans , if we knew with certainty what the specific name meant — whether 
