250 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol.XlV. 
28. N. aridum, Baker 5 Syn. Fil. 2 SI ; C. R. 531. Nephr odium aridum , 
Don (under Aspidium ), Bedd. H. B. 272. Aspidium vmulosum , Wall. Cat. 
352, A. smbridum , T^all. Cat. 302. 
Punjab : McDonell \ JTwW?/,.— Upper Beas Valley 5*6000', Trotter 1887 ; 
Simla Reg.— Bashahr, Lace. 
N.-W. P. : D. D. Diet.— Khurrak, Edgew. — Very common in the Dnn, in 
ditches and by sides of streams, 1500'— 8000' ; Kumaun — Sarju Valley 8500', S. & W., 
Davidson ; near Askot 4-5000', Duthie ; Takula 4500', MacLeod. Oudh — Philibhit, 
Keri and Baraitch Dists., Duthie 1898. 
Disteib .— Asia : N. India — “ Throughout the Bengal Plain, abundant : from the 
Soonderbun (Simdrib&n) to Assam and the Dehra Dun, ascending the hills to 3000'. 
Throughout India and Ceylon.'' 1 C Clarke's Rev.). Bhotan, Nuttall, Manipur 1600', 
Clarke 1885. Not in S. India or Ceylon {Bedd in H. B.). Malay Peninsula, Perak 
and Singapur. N. Australia ( Clarke in Rev.) 
This is one of the commonest ferns in the Dehra Dun, where there is water ; 
it is quite a hedgerow plant, if there is a wet ditch adjoining. Its name must 
have been given to it on account of the dry appearance and texture of the fronds 
when mature ; while growing they are succulent. The rhizome is creeping. I 
would amend Beddome’s description thus 
“ Rhizome creeping ; stipes 1 ft. or less long, erect, slightly pubescent ; 
fronds 2-12 ft. 1., 12-15 in. br. ; pinnae increasingly distant until below 
they, are 4-6 in. apart, and rapidly diminishing to mere auricles, 
6-9 in. 1., f-1 in. br., cat about Jrd of the way down into 
subtriangular sharp-pointed lobes, in the barren fronds, at least, 
auricled at base above ; the lowest lobes of the pinnse sometimes much 
the smallest, sometimes much the largest, in which latter case the vein- 
lets may be found forked, and anastomosing in the lobe ; texture coriaceous^ 
glandular below ; rhachis and lower surface hairy; veinlets 8-10 on a 
side, 5-6 pairs joined with those of the adjacent pinnules ; veins in 
green frond transparent, in dry frond opaque ; sori in rows, 1 or 1 
pair at junction of lowest pair of veins, — the rest nearly medial.” 
ColoDel Beddome’s new species, N. papyraceum, Suppt. H. B., p. 69, is, 
1 feel sure, non-existent, so far at least as N.-W. India is concerned. His 
locality — “ Kullu, Upper Biso Valley, Trotter ” — must be a misprint for 
“ Upper Bias (or Beas) Valley. I have a young sterile frond from Trotter 
collected in Kullu — Upper Bias Valley 5-6000', noted above, and it is 
N. aridum , pure and simple. It has no such venation in the lowest segments 
of the pinnae as Beddome speaks of ; but on looking at other specimens I find 
that is a character of JVT aridum , as long ago I observed it is of N. mole. I 
now understand that Col. Beddome gives up the Kullu station for N. papy- 
rywum. admitting that his specimen is N. aridum. 
29. N. molle, Desv. ; Syn. Fil. 293 ; Bedd. H. B. 277. JV. partmtu 
