1 80 JOURNAL t BOMBA Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XlV t 
and Kumaun plants, seems to be stouter, and sometimes to throw up fronds in 
tufts ; but there are few examples with rhizomes attached. A Japan specimen 
in Kew of A. sqmmigerum , from Hyachine, Faurie No. 13583, 24th 
August 1894, differs somewhat, as to the frond, from his No. 8111 from the 
Forests of Yubari in Yezo, mentioned above, which quite matches Duthie’s 
No. 14100 from Kashmir. On the same sheet with Faurie’s No. 13583, is a 
rhizome, some inches in length, which is black, creeping and branching, net 
slender, with stipes in tufts ; but this is disconnected from the pale-coloured stipes 
of the mounted frond, and the stipes itself is broken. Even supposing that 
rhizome does not belong to that particular frond, it is valuable, as showing 
that i he rhizomes of the Japan and Kurnaun plants are the same. Of course, 
great similarity, or even identity, of rhizome does not of itself prove identity of 
species : some other characters must agree. In the “ Synopsis ” A. crenaium 
is said to have stipes “scattered, firm, erect,” which implies a widely- 
creeping rhizome, but does not explicitly negative the supposition that it, like 
the Asiatic plants, also at intervals throws up fronds in tufts. The amount of 
“ lamina ” in a frond of A. crenatwn is much less than in either the Himalaya 
or the Japan plants, and the sori seem never so long as in these : Baker says — 
“ oblong, usually nearly straight, often double,” and as to A. sqmmigerum — 
“ linear, curved the lowest 2 lin. long.” But the involucres in Japanese 
specimens of A. sqmmigerum are often very broad in comparison with the 
sori, and, as Mettenius said, membranaceous, tender, entire. 
I lately asked Dr. H. Christ, of Basel, an eminent pteridologist, whether he 
could connect 4. sqmmigerum with A. crenalum, giving him at the same 
time particulars of the recent discoveries in the Himalaya, and he replied as 
follows : — 
“ J’ai le premier (A. crenatum, Rupr.) en echantillons nombreux du Nord : 
finlande, Scandinavie : plante petite : 3rd dec. stipe grele : eeailles peu mom- 
breuses, metis larges : noires , segments petit?, sores athyrioides, courts : plante 
fragile, rhizome presque filiforme, faible. 
“ J’ai la plante du Japon l. Faurie. 1 1,578 et 13,583 : toutes les dimensions 
doubles ou triples : plants 6 Dec. et au deta, stipe jusqiF a 3 mill, en diametre, 
ecall es brunes, lanceolees, nombreuses : segments grands, sores jusqu’ a un 
demi-centimetre, s-mv^nt diplazoides, rhizome plus e'pais, rampant, mais il 
semble que les stipes sont en peu en toufie et n<>n solitaires comme dans la 
plant - du N<-rd. 
4 ‘ Le plus ; rand e’chantillon est celui de Tosn, I Maldmo : fronde de 50 
cent, sans t ge. 
“ J« crois que la plante de ” Ind*- (que je n’ai pas vue !) doit £tre la p’antc 
du Japou, mais non la plante du Nord. Je ne nie pas !a grande affimte des 
