Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/145

 FERNS OF THE CHITRAL RELIEF EXPEDITION. 125 measured, 12f in.), bipinnate, glabrous. PinncB about 20 pairs, rarely more or less, distant, subpatent or ascending at an angle of less than 45°, lowest few pairs sometimes widest at one-third from main rachis, others hardly diminished towards base, and with lowest pair of pinnules sometimes elongated ; always acuminate, 6-11 1 in. long by li-3f in. broad. Pinnules 20 or more pairs on longest pinnae of large fronds, at the base cut away on the inferior side, and slightly auricled on superior side, f-i^ in. broad at base ; cut down two-thirds towards costa into 6-12 lobes with two or more teeth each, gradually narrowing and sometimes blunt at apex, decurrent on rachis with sometimes a broadly winged base. Texture herbaceous. Colour, when dried, pale olive-green. Veins of pin- nules pinnate, and veinlets forked in the lobes, pinnate in lowest. Sari mostly one on superior veinlet of each lobe, near to or at some distance from costa of pinnule, but more numerous in large lobes, and in lowest lobes of large pinnules ; involucres large, straight, athyroid or hippocrepiform, and sometimes severed at the curve. Hab. Asia : — Trans-Indus Protected States : Baraul, 8500 ft., Harriss, 1895. Kashmir, West, 6000-10,000 ft., Trotter, 1888; MacLeod, 1891 ; McDonell, 1892-93 ; Duthie, 1893. Punjab : Chamba, 7000-9000 ft., Baden-Powell, 1879 ; McDonell. Simla Region, 8200 ft. and upwards, Blanford, 1885; Hope, 1886 ; Bliss, 1890, 91. N.W. Provinces: Mussooree or neighbourhood, Herschel, 1878. Zehri Garhwal State, 8000 ft., P. W. S V. A. Mackinnon, 1879; 10,000 ft., Davidson, 1875; 8000-9000 ft., Duthie, 1883; 7500 ft., Gamble, 1884. Kumaun, 9000-10,000 ft., Dutliie, 1884. Sikkim : Phulloot, 11,500 ft., Lemnge, 1880 (Gamble's No. 8538). A large broad- spreading fern, with a long stipe, and when dried reminding one of Nephrodium marginatum of Wallich, and me some- times of N. rarnosum. The scales at base of stipe are like those of A. nigripes Mett., but pale in colour, as is the frond. The sori do not lie in parallel rows near the costa, like those of A. nigripes, but are generally apart from it, curving outwards, and the involucres are generally much more curved. No doubt specimens of this fern are to be found in herbaria mixed with A. nigripes, but I think they ought to be separated. I erroneously entered it in the Saharunpur Catalogue as A. selenopteris Kunze, but I must now separate" them, and I name the species after the brothers Mackinnon, of Mussooree, in whose collection I first saw it, and whose specimens are the largest I have seen, and because they have largely added to the number of species of ferns found westward of Nepal, and have foand several species which are entirely new. A. dentigerum Wall. Mirga, 8500 ft., Lowari Pass, 10,000 ft., Harriss. A. Ceterach L. 3 stations, 4000-7000 ft., Gatacre. Aspidium Lonchitis Sw. Zidrat, 11,000 ft., Harriss. Nephrodium Filix-mas Rich. Lowari Pass, 9500 ft., Harriss. N. odontoloma Moore (Lastrea Filix-mas var. odontoloma Moore, Beddome's Handbook, Suppt. 55). 6 stations, 6300-10,000 ft., Harriss ; Mirga, 8000 ft., Gatacre,