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to prove it to be distinct. Gardner's specimen represented the plant imperfectly, | 
Better specimens since received exhibit the character of the species more fully. ' 
Mr. Baker calls it A. Gardneri, and the old name A. macrophyllum, therefore, 
disappears from our Ceylon list.” 
83. Asplenium formosum, Willd. 
Bed. 1. t. 136. This fern was found by Thwaites in the forests above’ 
Galagama, towards the Horton Plains. I have never seen any but the specimens 
collected by him, and Mr. Buxton Laurie, and it must I think be a rare- 
fern in Ceylon. It is a good deal like small forms of 78, A. erectum, but the 
pinnae are deeply dissected in A. formosum. 
84, Asplenium resectum, Smith. 
Bed. 1. t. 132. This is a very variable Fern, and Thwaites has 
no less than five C. P. Nos. for it, but I think there can be no trouble in iden- 
tifying them all as for this fern, which is ^ common one in the forests of 
the interior, with the exception of C. P. 1336. figured by Bed dome 1. t. 134^ , 
as the A. trapeziforme, Box ; and which is equal to the A. lunulatum, Sw., 
undoubtedly a form of 78, A, erectum, as shown above. Under the impression 
that Thwaites was correct in calling his C. P. 1336 a form of A. resectum, I 
was much puzzled on a late occasion when collecting these two ferns in the- 
forests in the vicinity of the Great Western, in Dimboola. I noted that A. 
resectum had in every instance a long creeping rhizome, with scattered fronds,, 
whilst the other had an erect caudex, and the fronds tufted. I then came to- ; 
the conclusion that if the Aspidium (Polystichum) aristatum, Sw., with a creep- 
ing rhizome, should be separated from Aspidium (Polystichum) coniifolium, Wal- 
lich, in consequence of its erect caudex, that the above two ferns should also 
be separated, and when spending an evening with Mr. Beckett shortly after 
he showed me his notes proving that he had made the necessary corrections 
as shown at No. 78. 
85. Asplenium heterocarpum, Wall. 
Bed. 1. t. 131. This is a beautiful fern and is found in the same loca- 
lities as Nos. 75 and 78. The. sori are on the toothed edges of the pinnas. 
86. Asplenium planicaule, Wall. 
Bed. 1. t. 139. I cannot find amongst a considerable number of varia- 
ble specimens collected by me, any one like Beddome’s figure of the 
Indian plant. A comparison of my specimens of this fern convinces me that 
in every respect it is the simply divided form of the next one, A. furcatum, just 
as A. falcatum is of the A. affine, and the same remarks exactly apply to A. 
planicaule and A. furcatum in respect to the passing of the one to the other.-^ 
Found on the trunks of trees in the forests of the Central Province. 
87. Asplenium furcatum, Thunb. 
Bed. 1. t. 144. As stated above, my specimens of this fern indicate that 
it is simply a more compound or more deeply dissected form of A. planicaule- 
iust as A. affine is of A. falcatum, see my notes on these as exactly applicable 
to this one, and 86. — This is not such an abundant form as No, 86. 
88. Asplenium affine, Sw. 
Bed 1. 1. 226, 225, and 149? The more I look at all the figures in Bed- 
dome for this group of ferns, and at my own specimens, the more I am inclined 
to say “contusion worse confounded”! I am now nearly convinced that the 
next one, A. nitidum, is an Alpine form of this fern, and that Nos. 80, 81, 
87, 88, and 89 so run into each other, "that they are forms of one variable 
species,' and that specimen^ carefully collected from the coast up to the greatest 
elevation at which they are found to grow, and then carefully arranged, ac- 
cording to their variations would go to prove that all of them, and several other- 
supposed species are mere forms of one variable species. 
