84 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol.XIII, 
adhered to the view taken in the first edition of the Synopsis Filicmn . In his 
Hand-book of 1883, Beddome placed A. Edgeworthii as var. Edgeworthii of 
A. caudatmn, but in the Supplement of 1892 gave it full rauk. The only habitat 
Hooker cited (knew of ? ) was near Multan, where originally it was discovered 
by Mr. Edgeworth. Hooker says “ Mr. Edgeworth, in his notes, observes of 
this * it is not A. r/iizophorum ’ (for indeed the texture of the frond and vena- 
tion are totally different), ‘ nor A. caudatmn , Sw., nor Jiagellifervm , Koxb. n. 
76 ’ (for in those varieties of one and the same plant the fronds, and especially 
the stipes, are more or less clothed with fulvous hairs or chaff) : ‘ (it differs 
from all in the integrity of the pinnae).’ On these grounds I give it as distinct, 
though we need more copious specimens to see that it does not pass into cau- 
datmn ” Sir W. Hooker goes on to remark that “ the nerves are the same ” ; . . . 
« the fertile pinnae scarcely exhibit an appearance of lobes ; and the contiguous 
sori form a pretty even line at the edge.” From this it appears that the first 
parenthesis, in the quotation from the Species Filicum given above, is a version 
of Edgeworth’s original note, and, from a careful examination of the numerous 
specimens of both species in my collection, I think I can say that as regards 
the venation Edgeworth was right, and Hooker wrong ; and the venation 
shown in the enlarged figures of the two species, Plates LX XX and LXXXI, 
Sp. Fil, seems to bear me out. In A. caudatmn (A. rhizophorum , Sw.), so far 
as I can see, the system of venation is flabellate, i.e., the veins all radiate direct- 
ly from the petiole, whereas in A. Edgeworthii a branch of the petiole, corres- 
ponding to the costa of' a dimidiate pinna, runs along the inferior, straight 
edge of the pinna, giving off branches inwards all along its length. It is not 
always clear whether this branch, or costa, itself forms the thickened, or stiffened, 
margin of the pinna, or whether the thickened margin is outside of it ; but 
this inferior vein, or costa, gives off no branches on the outer, or inferior, side. 
The inferior vein of a pinna of A. caudatmn seems to me to branch towards the 
inferior margin, as well as upwards. But the venation of A. caudatmn , shown 
in Beddome’s enlarged figure, t. 41 of the Hand-book, is as I have described it 
for A. Edgeworthii. 
I must, with regret, impeach the integrity of the pinnae of A. Edgeworthii, 
certified to by Edgeworth, and partly doubted by Hooker and Beddome, for the 
lobes are always more or less distinct and deeply separated, especially in barren- 
fronds, though the divisions are never so deep as they often are in A. cau- 
datmn ; whe-n they are shallow, they are sometimes obscured by the involucres 
overlapping them, and even each other. The involucres- are often deeper 
(broader ? ) than in A. caudatum , and they are membranous, transparent, and 
larger than the ripe sori are. When turned back, and the sporangia scraped 
