A SUMMARY OF INDIAN CHEILANTHOID FERNS AND THE DISCOVERY OF NEGRIPTERIS (PTERIDACEAE), AN AFRO-ARABIAN FERN GENUS NEW TO INDIA

A summary of Indian cheilanthoid ferns treated under nine genera includes three new names, Notholaena dipinnata Fras.-Jenk., Cheilanthes bhutanica Fras.Jenk. & Wangdi and Cheilanthes tibetica Fras.-Jenk. & Wangdi, and five new combinations, Cheilanthes nitidula Hook. subsp. henryi (Christ) Fras.-Jenk., Aleuritopteris bicolor (Roxb.) Fras.-Jenk. & Dulawat, Aleuritopteris subdimorpha (C.B.Clarke & Baker) Fras.-Jenk. and Notholaena muelleri (Hook.) Fras.-Jenk. Negripteris scioana (Chiov.) Pic.Serm. (Pteridaceae), a close relative of both Aleuritopteris and Chrysochosma, was discovered by the second author in semi-arid conditions in the Kumbhalgarh and Sitamata Reserves of the Aravalli Hills in central Rajasthan, N.W. India, the first record for the Indian sub-continent. It was known previously only from N.E. Africa, Socotra and S. Arabia and is an Afro-Arabian species which, as now found, extends eastwards into the hills of the semi-arid region of W. India. INTRODUCTION The cheilanthoid ferns of India have at various times been placed in the families Sinopteridaceae, Negripteridaceae, Cheilanthaceae and Hemionitidaceae, but are now generally accepted as belonging to subfamily Cheilanthoideae, within Pteridaceae, with the other four families, among others, in its synonymy. The common term cheilanthoid is a vague and undefined one, though it should be recognisable to most fern-workers. The most obviously “cheilanthoid” ferns of India belong to nine genera, though various other genera are also allied or within Subfam. Cheilanthoideae, but are not dealt with here (see, for example, Tryon, Tryon & Kramer 1990). These nine genera with their Indian subcontinental species are as follows: 1. Notholaena R.Br., includes Cosentinia Tod., Paraceterach Copel. and Paragymnopteris K.H.Shing, perhaps also Chrysochosma (J.Sm.) Kümmerle. This genus has long been accepted internationally as typified by N. marantae (L.) Desv., following Christensen (1905) and subsequently the carefully reasoned work of Pichi Sermolli (1981, 1989). An apparent lectotypification by Smith (1875) merely used the word “type” in the sense of “typical species”, or even “representative species” and in several other cases Smith cited species not included by the original author of a genus, or even cited more than one species after the word “type”. His misuse of the word FERN GAZ. 18(5):216-229. 2009 216