206 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV 
A. aculeatum Sw. He says— “ 6. A . sqmrrosum , fronde lanceolata bipinnafca : 
foliolis pinnisque alternis snbsessilibus oblongo-ovafcis mucronatis rigidis glabris 
nitidisque.” . . . “ Polypodium spinulosum, Hamilton M. S., nec aliorum. 
. o “ Frons ampla, rigida, fcectu aspera.” lion’s fern was, therefore, 
bipinnate, mucronate, rigid, smooth and shining, but rough to the touch, 
Punjab : Cflamba—6 000' McDonellj Kaimjra Vy. List . — Dharmsala 6000', Trotter ; 
Kullu 6—8000', Coventry ; Mandi State 7000', Trotter y Simla Reg. 5500'— 8000', 
common, Hope, Gamble Blanf., Duthie, Bliss, Lace. 
U.-W. P. % D . D. List .— Jaunsar 5500' and upwards, Sundar Lai, C. G. Sogers, 
Gammie ; Mussooree 5-6500', vary common ; T. Gath, above DhaHra, Duthie’s colln. 
1879, Ganges Vy. 7-8000', and Phedi, Dntbie ; Kumaun— common 5-8500', S-. & 
Hope, Davidson, Trotter, Macleod. 
Distrib — Asia : N. Xnd. (Him.)— Nepal, Sikkim and Bfaotan. Assam— Jakpbo. 
Mt.; Kohima 6000', Clarhe. 
Occasionally the whole of the scales and fibrils or stipes and rhachis are 
brown and not rufous, faded perhaps. The cutting of the ultimate segments 
the coriaceous shiny nature of the frond, and the stiff mucronate spines 
sufficiently distinguish this species from the other Himalayan plants which 
have been called A. aculeatum and A. anguiare . The plant produces numerous 
fronds annually, grows to large bushes, and is evergreen in spite of frost and 
mm in winter. Sori are generally wanting on the lower third or quarter of 
the frond, but often also on the upper part. The involucres sometimes over- 
lap each other. 
I cannot follow Clarke and Beddome, when they say— <£ frond usually 
reddish/’ The rhachises and costse are covered below with the red heard from 
which Wallich named the plant j but the small fibrils on the veins are not 
enough to colour the surface of the pinnules, and the upper surface is either 
quite glabrous, or has only a few fibrils on the costa. 
I think. what Clarke calls A . aculeatum , var cJ 1 , lobata (sp.) Engl. Bot. ? 
must be the very narrow form of A. squarrosum of which I have specimens 
from the Simla Region, Jaunsar, and Tehri Garhwal. The pinnules are small, 
simple, ogival at apex, very close together, and imbricated,* and are less dis- 
tinctly stalked than in the normal form— reduced to lobes in the upper part. 
The scales and fibrillse are brown rather than rufous ; and the texture is rather 
thicker than in the type, and the fronds dry a brown colour. In all other res- 
pects the plant is identical with the present species, and is antithetical to the 
so-called A . lobatum of European botanists. 
B. Texture herbaceous . 
12 , A. angular©, Willd. Sp. PI. 1810 V. 257 ; “ Frondibus bipinnatis, 
pinnulis oblongis subfalcatis mucronato-serratis sursum auriculatis, infinu elon- 
gata subpinnatifida, stipite rachibusque paleaceis. IV, Habitat in H angaria. 
