THE FERNS OF NORTH- WESTERN INDIA . 
195 
the main rhachis has a pinnated costa with a row of soil m each side of it : 
involucres rather fugacious. The auricles are sometimes themselves auriculate. 
The scales on stipe are large, broad, dark- brown with lighter margins, or some- 
times pale concolorous, mixed with which are pale fibrillose scales ; and both 
kinds of scales extend up the main rhachis, dminishing in size upwards. The 
costa and veins of the pin urn are, on the underside, to some extent clothed with 
small fibrillose' or chaffy scales, which, being inconspicuous, are liable to be 
overlooked. These are quite different in shape and appearance from the much 
smaller round or ovate- scales, which generally thickly cover the under surface of 
A, marginatum. 
6. A. oTaliqU'anis Don, Prod. FI. Nep. 3. A. auriculatum, Sw e <?, 
A. obliguum , Don., Syn. Fil. 2nd ed. 493. A. auriculatum , Don., var. 3 
cocspilosa , Wall. Cat. 367, Cl. Fev. 507. Poly stick mi auriculatum L., var- 
7 ccespitosum , Wall, Bedd/'H. B. 204. F. B. I., t. 33. Plate XXVIJI, C. 
Punjab: Ckamoa — -Ravi Valley 7,000', McDonell ; Kullv — 7,000', Trotter, Coventry. 
Simla Reg. — above^ Simla, Colonel Bates; Edgew. 1834; near Simla 4,000' (?) Eer- 
schel; “very rare within my limits and area. I have found it but once, at 4, 800'.' 1 
Blanf. in List. 
N.-W. P. : D . B. Bist .— Jaunsar 7-8,000', Gamble ; Mussoorie 5-6,500', plentiful. in 
several places on wet rocks in forest ; T. Garh .— Kidar Khnta Mt. 8-9,000', Herschel ; 
Kumam — near Kami Tal 6,000', Hope 1861, Levinge 1875. 
Disteib .— Asia : N. Ind. (Him.); Nepal Wallich ; Sikkim and Bhotan. Assam 
— Khasia 3-4,000', very common; N. Manipur 3,500', ClarTte. 
The stipes in this species are densely tufted, slender, and, except for a few 
greyish brown scales near the base, extending a short distance up the main rha- 
chis, are, with the rhachises and the surfaces of the frond, glabrous. The 
plants vary much in size, according to situation and the degree of moisture they 
are favoured with. 
Mr. Baker says— “ Seldom above | ft. high”: the other books give no dimen- 
sions. I have fertile fronds with stipe and frond together less than 2 in. high, 
by | in. broad, and all sizes between that . and a total height of 22 inches, of 
which the stipes are 8—9 inches, and the fronds 12—13 in. long by 2— 2| in, 
broad. The shape and cutting of the pinnae vary very much, from rhombai do- 
ovate, nearly as broad as long, in small plants, to in. long by \ in. broad, 
sharply, pointly and distinctly auricled at the base and greatly cut away on the 
inferior side, in large plants. The pinnae are sometimes merely crenate, some- 
times narrow and falcate, and the barren fronds are sometimes sharply toothed 
at the end of every veinlet. The pinnae are hardly ever distinctly lobed, and 
occasionally they are in shape almost like the simple form of A. marginatum. 
The system of venation in A. obliqmm is the simplest in the whole group, 
and in the absence of distinct lobes to the pinnae may best be described as— 
pinnate bn the costa,, with veinlets forking once or twice. The venation is 
