Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/146

 126 FERNS OF THE CHITRAL RELIEF EXPEDITION. N. ramosum, n. sp. Rhizome procumbent, ligneous, densely clothed, as are the bases of the stipes, with large broad suddenly- acuminate hair-pointed pale brown self-coloured scales. Stijjes 6-17 in. long, stout, pale brown or straw-coloured, sometimes mottled. Fro7id 10-24 in. long by 8-13 in. broad, bipinnate in lower part ; rachises slightly winged in upper pinn^ ; lowest pinnae as long or longer than the next above, and the lowest four or five pairs but little diminished in length, diminution thence gradual to apex; rachises straw-coloured, or pale brown, or pale green, more or less clothed with pale-coloured linear scales and fibrils, but sometimes glabrous ; frond plumose in appearance. PinncB as- cendant, 16-30 pairs, besides the deeply pinnatifid apex, distant near base of frond, lowest S-Of in. long by 2-4J in. broad. Pinnules 12-20 pairs, on the lower pinnae much longest on the lower side, largest towards the middle and then up to 2| in. long, none in. broad, and all distant, falcate ; oblong for two-thirds their length and then acuminate, cut down to a winged rachis into 10-15 segments ; segments in large fronds lobed on both sides, and lobes toothed. Texture herbaceous. Colour pale green, but drying sometimes pale brown. Veins pinnate in segments, and forked in larger lobes. Sori generally absent in lowest two or three pairs of pinnae, but extending sometimes almost to the apices of fronds and pinnae, up to six in lowest lobes, medial. Involucres thick, moderate-sized, persistent, brown; spomw^ia pale green when young. Hab. Asia : — Afghanistan : Peiwar Kotal, 8000 ft.. Major (now Sir Henry) Collett, 1879. Trans-Indus Protected States (on the route to Chitral), 7200-10,000 ft., Harriss ; Gatacre, 1895. Kash- mir, West, 4000-10,000 ft.. Trotter, 1888; MacLeod, 1891 ; McDonell, 1891 & 1894; Duthie, 18d2. Punjab: Hazara District ; Himalaya, between Abbotabad and Murree, 7000-8500 ft., frequent, Trotter^ 1889-90. Simla Region, 8500-9000 ft., Blanford, 1884; Hope, 1886; Bliss, 1891. N.W. Provinces: Jannoar, 8000 ft.. Gamble, 1892-95. Zehri Garhwal, 8000-9000 ft., Duthie, 1883. The characteristic features of this fern are the broad frond, hardly ever reduced at the base ; the very long, broad, and distant pinnae ; the very long and narrow pinnules ; the pale green colour of the frond, and the almost invariably pale colour of the scales. The distribution seems to be confined to the Western Himalaya and the mountains immediately to the westward of British India ; but in colour it is similar to the less compound .V. pallidum of Bory, which fern I consider to be quite distinct from N. rigidum Desv., and to be near N. odontoloma Moore. Some specimens of N. ramosum, approach N. odontoloma, and others N. marginatwn Wall., which varies a good deal in cutting and texture. A odonto- loma never is broadest at base, as is N. ramosum almost invariably. Perhaps the nearest congener of this species is N. nemoralis, n. sp., Hope MS., a fern with a more limited range, hitherto called N. spinulosum Desv. var. remota ; but that species is never truly bipinnate, and it has always a short stipe and dark-coloured scales.