C 33 > 
would agree as to what are distinct species, and what varieties only. Sir Wil- 
liam Hooker considers them all (even the last) as only varieties of the Euro- 
pean “ Lastrea Filix-mas” “ Habitat, a and b throughout Europe and Asia, 
from Lapland Japan and the Malay Isles, ascending in the Plimalayas to 15,000 
feet ; Madeira, Sandwich Isles ; America, from Greenland along the Rocky 
Mountains and Andes to Peru,” Raker. 
123. Nephrodium (Lastrea) flaccidum, Hk. 
Bed. 1. t. 250. This is a delicate, flaccid, fern, found only in the edges 
of the damp forests in the more elevated parts of the Central Province. It 
has an erect caudex, and is only simply pinnated, whilst 134, N. (L.) setigerum, 
with which Beddome compares it, is a very common fern from the sea coast- 
upwards, has a creeping caudex, is a large bipinnate fern, with often a silvery 
look about it and the involucres very rarely to be found out it. See my re- 
marks on 134. 
124. Nephrodium '(Lastrea) sparsum, Don. 
Bed. 1. t. 103. not good, and 1. t. 248 good for the form deltoidea of 
Beddome. This is one of the most variable and most abundant of our Ceylon 
Ferns in the highest parts of the interior, and like most other plants, varie 
in size and appearance according to soil and exposure. Every form of it seems to dry 
well and make nice herbarium specimens. — Bed. 1. t. 103 in its general outline 
is a good figure for the normal small Ceylonese form of this fern, but the 
distinct aristate and mucronate divisions of the pinnules shown in the figure 
po not exist on our Ceylon one, and are in fact a contradiction to the descrip- 
tion which says that, “ the secondary pinnae are ovate, or ovato oblong obtuse ” 
“ in the lower half with rounded obtuse entire . lobes.” Beddome’s description 
“ Lowest pinnules sometime compound the others lanceolate, unequal-sided, pin- 
natifid, with oblong, blunt lobes ’ ’ Baker. In fact as far as the aristate divi- 
sions of the pinnules are concerned, Bed. 1. t. 103 is better for Aspidium 
(Polysticlum) coniifolium than for this fern. The very remarkable fern dis- 
covered by Mr. Beckett first on the top of the Wattakellie mountain, with a 
zigzag frond looks very distinct from this fern, but the forms of it found 
lower down on the hill so run into this one, that I should suspect the 
flexuose rachis to be an abonormal state of this variable fern, and caused 
perhaps by cold and great exposure. Some of the largest and most divided 
specimens of N. (L.) - sparsum which I collected, were from the belt of forest 
above upper Wariagalla, in a stream crosssing the Bridle path leading to Kandy, 
and I beg to thank Mr. Allan Black, then of Kittoolamoola, for the pleasant trip 
I had to this spot, and for the trouble he took in drying my specimens of 
this fern and of Pteris patens, in very damp weather. 
125. Nephrodium (Lastrea) undulatum, Baker. 
Bed. 1. t. 71. This remarkable fern was first discovered by J. W. N. 
Beckett, F. L. S. on the top of the Wattakellie hill, one of the long parallel 
ridges in Kallibokka. It was first described and named by Thwaites. Baker 
says of it: — “Perhaps not distinct from the last, with which it agrees, except 
in the peculiar zigzag rachises.” The fertile fronds of this fern form a series 
of zigzags and the pinnge spring downwards from the rachis, and in an exact 
line with one of its bends, and are also undulated, but the barren fronds, and 
those which grow on the lower parts of the hill, run into N. (L.) sparsum. 
I shall never forget the night ride from Maussa kellie to Allacolla, and from 
thence next day to the flag staff on the Trig station on the top of Wattakellie, 
in search of this fern and other Botanical rarities in company of A. H. T. 
We entered the forest very shortly after 6 o’clock a. m., and collected upwards 
until close upon 1 o’clock p. m., when we had breakfast in a beautiful little spot 
sheltered by detached masses of rock, at an elevation of 5,000 to 6.000 feet, where 
the cold and the sight of lots of Buttercups and Violets growing close to us, 
reminded us of. our Native land! None but those similarly situated can con- 
ceive the pleasure of breaking a long fast under the peculiar circumstances. The 
