THE FERNS OF NOR TH- WES TERN INDIA. 
221 
on, he referred to it as A tylodes , and subsequent authors perpetuated the mis- 
take. Moore, in the unpublished MS. of his Index Filmm 9 noted the 
mistake— -as Mr. Baker has shown me. 
Kunze’s long description of Aspidium xylodes shows clearly that it is the 
comparatively rare Indian plant, with sori close to the costa. The rhizome was 
unknown to him, and he had not seen a complete stipes. .He calls attention to 
the callus ” at the base of the pinna, which is much longer than the “ gland ” 
in N. ochthodes. He says of this callus — “ adhuc saepe neglecto, insignem . . 
Hinc ultimo proxime affino nostrum differt : fronde firmiore, supra nitida est, 
excepta costa supra, glabra, basi abrupte contracta ; soris non conjunctis, nec 
margine approximatis, ad costam productis, indusiis magnis, glabris, venis 
omnibus apice incrassatis, rhachi subtus stipitisque glabriusculis seu glabris.” 
The gland or callosity is not visible on the upper aspect of the frond, and the 
pinna appears to be attached to both it and the rhachis of the frond. That the 
“ callus ” is remarkable, as Kunze said, is shown by the fact that in some 
specimens it is all that — below the perhaps single pair of leafy auricles— 
is left down nearly to the caudex to represent pinnae. In other speci- 
mens there is just the merest trace of lamina besides the “ callus.” But I am 
bound to state that a specimen in the Levinge collection, collected by him in 
Sikkim in 1871, has butterfly auricles on the incomplete stipes. Another small 
plant got bv Mr. Levinge below Darjiling shows a section of an upright 
caudex. 
This species grows to a very large size, as is shown even by the incomplete 
specimens I possess and have seen. The breadth of frond in specimens found 
by the Messrs. Mackinnon to the west of Mussooree is jvs much as 2£ feet ; and 
the stipes is more than 2| feet in length. The pinna; are sub patent, the 
lower few pairs becoming depressed,— the lowest pair very much so, and nar- 
rowed at the base, though the medial pinnse have the lower segments consider- 
ably longer than those above : width of pinna? up to 1 J inches. Kunze says— 
“ Stipes, quam integrum non vidi, et rhachis basi saepe pennam anserinum 
crassitie ajqunt.” The rhachis of one specimen I have is T % in. br. (where the 
pinnse suddenly cease), as flattened by pressing ; and the aurided part below 
that point — split to facilitate drying in the press — broadens downwards until 
one-half is £ in. and the other f in. wide, and these are not quite flat ; so that 
the circumference of the rhachis near its base must have been more than in., 
and the diameter about ‘4 in. The size of the stipes I cannot estimate. 
Mr. Trotter’s specimen from the Punjab* in my possession, is very different in 
size, but yet is unmistakably the same plant ; it is only 2 feet 1 inch in total 
height, the rhachis auricled (or glanduliferous) almost to the caudex, which is 
erect, with stipes tufted : the frond only 6-7 in. br., and the pianss osny about 
