Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/143

 FERNS OP THE CHITRAL RELIEF EXPEDITION. 123 Of the new species, Aspleninm {Athyrluui) Mackhinoni is a large fern which I first observed in the herbarium of the brothers P. N. and V. A. Mackinnon, of Mussooree, gathered in Zehri Garhwal, but which seems to have a pretty wide range in the Himalayas, namely, from Kashmir to Kumaun, and — the intervening thousand miles of Nepal being almost a terra incognita — reappearing in Sikkim. This plant has been confused with A. nigripes Mett. Nephrodium (Lastrea) ramosiun I first saw, in 1882, from the Hazara District, in the Punjab, where later on it was gathered in quantity by Mr. E. W. Trotter; it was got in Afghanistan, in the Peiwar Kotul, in 1879, by Sir Henry Collett ; it seems, from gatherings by Mr. J. C. McDonell and Major R. W. MacLeod, to be not uncommon in Kashmir ; the late Mr. H. F. Blanford, Mr. T. Bliss and I found it in the Simla region ; it has been got in the Janusar Hill Tract of the Dehra Dua l3ibtrict by Mr. J. S. Gamble ; and in the Zehri Garhwal State by Mr. J. F. Duthie. This fern has been called, according to the fancies or theories of collectors, N. Fiiix-inas, var. ; N. FiLix-mas var. elo7igata, and N. spifiulosiim var. rem Ota. Even in a dried state it is a remarkably beautiful fern. As I cannot see that it is a form of any described species, I must give it a specific name. The most remarkable items on the list are Fteris (Doryopteris) ludens Wall, and Lygodium microphyllum K. Br., both found by General Gatacre in the Ziarat Valley, the first at 5000 and 8000 ft., and the second at 5000 ft. altitude. P. ludens is represented by two sterile fronds, without rhizome (which should be creeping), are (from 8000 ft.) about 2^ in. long by barely 1 in. broad, entire, cordate-lanceolate; and the other (from 5000 ft.) about 4 in. long by 4^ broad, with two pairs of lateral, oblong, rather bluntly pointed lobes, the lowest of which has a pair of subsidiary lobes, defiexed. The stipes, main and secondary rachises are glabrous and almost black ; the veins are hidden in the coriaceous lamina. I have com- pared these specimens with other sterile fronds of P. ludens^ from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in Mr. J. S. Gamble's collection, and find them identical, though the cutting varies ; and Mr. Gamble agrees. The most westerly extension of this species hitherto known is in Orissa, in the Indian Peninsula, in about 21J° N. kt. and 86° E. long., up to 1000 ft. alt. Other reputed habitats are (in India) the Naga Hills, in Assam, about 750 ft. alt. ; the east of Manipur, in about 23° N. lat. and 94° E. long., at an altitude of 5000 ft. ; and (elsewhere) Burma, the Malayan Peninsula, and the Philippine Islands. The Ziarat Valley, where General Gatacre got the fern, lies to the south of Chitral, north of the Lowari Pass, in about 35° 25' N. lat. and 71° 50' E. long. Snow must He in the valley for many months of the year at the altitude of 8000 ft., and perhaps even down to 5000 ft. The other remarkable item in the list is a Lygodium, — part of a frond, with only barren pinnae, the shape of which agrees with those of L. microphyllum K. Br., — a tropical and semitropical fern, not hitherto found in Northern India west of Assam, Bhotan, and the plains of Northern Bengal. L. pinnatijidum Sw. is common in