THE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA . 
153 
Distrib, — Asia : N. Ind. (Him,) Nepal, Wallick ; Sikkim ( A Clarkei) T% T. ; 
6-7000' W % S. Atkinson and C. B. Clarke ,* Assam (-4. C&jr&<»)—Na>a Hills 5500', 
Clarke • 
Both Beddome and Blanford say A. tenuifrons does not root at the apex, as 
A. Olarkei normally does ; but I think it probable that sometimes it does so 
root, for not unfrequently the fronds bear buds or bulbils near the apex, just 
as A. Olarkei does, which produce young plants ; and if late in the season, 
from -‘decay, suoh fronds should bend downwards the buds or plants would 
have a chance of taking root, or — the young plants may drop off and take root. 
I have a large frond collected by Mr. McDonell in Chumba, stipe 12 in-, frond 
27 J in. 1., which lias produced a young plant at two inches from its apex, 
one inch in length, stipe and frond together, — an aerial growth. Another 
plant, collected in Kullu by Mr. Trotter, with five fronds, has two buds on 
each of three fronds, and two of these have produced aerial plants about 
half an inch long. There are two minute buds on Gamble’s No. 6311 
from Simla ; and some very large fronds -got in Tehri Garhwal by the 
Messrs. Mackinnons are proliferous, one having four buds. A frond from 
Kumaun (Colonel Davidson) has two buds, both of which have thrown out 
minute fronds. And, finally, Wallich’s specimens of this plant, in the 
Herbarium of the Linnean Society have bulbils and young plants : one plant 
has five or six young plants on it. These are named — some Asplenium tenni - 
firons, Wall., and some — Allantodia denticulata i Wall, in Herb. 1823. 
Mr. Clarke gives Asplenium, tenuifrons , Wall., Cat, 206 (part of type sheet) 
as a synonym of A. Olarkei (and also Allantodia denticulata Wall.), but there 
are such differences in the shape of the fronds and of the pinnules that I 
hesitate to say that they are the same specifically. Both seem to like a moist 
soil. Clarke writes of the rhizome of Atkinson’s plant — “ stout, tufted, stand- 
ing 2 inches out of wet sand, with a cluster of stipes at the top, radiating 
round and rooting in a circle, at a radius of about 2 feet from the central 
rhizome : the sub-terminal rooting bud seems always present in well-developed 
fronds ; rarely are there two rooting buds.” At my Simla station A. tenuifrons 
grows in the bed of a torrent, and the caudex must often be under water in the 
rainy season. To make A . Olarkei a var. of A. nigripes seems to me, unreason- 
able ; but as it is not a North-West Indian fern, I am* not here concerned in 
advocating its claims to be a species. 
I have already indicated some of the principal features of A. tenuifrons. It 
is stiff and upstanding, though young plants approach A, tmellum in habit. 
If plants of the latter species should be found much longer than I have seen 
(one or two large ones, e. g., Mr. Dut hie No. 3634 from Kumaun, the frond 
