THE FERNS OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA. 
165 
“ It is very similar in cutting to Lastrea Brunoniana. Dr, Duthie’s 
three specimens had been sorted into that packet at Kew, where 
they were detected by Mr. Hope.” 
The entries in the Saharanpur Catalogue are : — 
N.-W. P. : T. Garh. —Ganges Valley, Duthie No. 389, Aug. 1888 ; L'ekhun Gadh 
under Srikanta 12-13,000', Duthie No. 392, Aug. 1883 ; Brit. Garh. — “amongst 
bushes 11 , near Kuari Pass 12-13,000', Duthie No, 51G5, Sept. 1885; Kumaun— near R&- 
lam Glacier 12-13,000, Duthie No. 3667, Aug. 1881 (Specimens from Tehri Garh\v£t, 
and Kumaun were contributed by Mr. Duthie to the Kew Herbarium). 
Disteib. (as new known)— Asia; N. Ind. (Him.) Sikkim Ta-ne-doo Dr King’s 
Collector, No. 4464, Aug 1877, 2 sheets — no rhizomes, and Goc mthang 13,000' Di- 
Sing's Collector,. July 1888, 2 sheets. Bhot&n — Jongri, Dr King’s Collector, Aug. 
1887, 1 sheet, with rhizome. 
I “ detected ” this Athyrium some years before I showed it to Colonel 
Beddome in the Kew Herbarium ; but I had not then begun to write about 
Ferns. The creeping rhizome is a very characteristic feature of the plant. 
The frond diminishes in width from the middle very gradually to the tip : N. 
Brunonimum maintains its middle width of frond to within a few pinnae of 
the apex, and is then suddenly rounded off. A. Duthiei is glabrous except for 
a few scattered scales on the main rhachis : N. Brunonianum is shaggy on 
stipe and main rhachis almost to the tip. It has been thought that the 
shagginess of the last-mentioned fern and its congener, N. barbioenm , Hook, 
is a natural protection against the cold of the high altitudes at which they 
grow ; but A. Duthiei grows as high up } and yet is remarkably glabrous. If 
it always grows among bushes, as in one instance at least Mr. Duthie found it 
growing, the scaly clothing is not so necessary. 
To the instances in which A. Duthiei has been collected I have now to add 
the following : — 
Kumaun — R. Blinkworth 1827 : 2 fronds, w ; th incomplete stipes, and no 
rhizome : one with a Wallich’s ticket “ dentigerum , Wall. 5 ’ and another sheet 
1 frond, marked by Bentham “Polypodium dentigerum, Wall., Kumaun, 
Wall. 1829.” These are two more specimens on a sheet in the Kew Herba- 
rium which was among A. Fihx-femina, and has on it also an incomplete 
frond of forma dentigera , Wall., with Wallich’s ticket. 
(To be continued.) 
