In the coarse of my summer residence at Simla daring the last ten, and more particularly the last five, years, I hare availed myself of such opportunities as have offered to collect and examine the materials for a list of the local ferns. The limits of my field of work have necessarily been determined by considerations of ready accessibility, and do not extend much below 4,500 feet on the one hand, nor above 10,500 feet on the other. I have, indeed, sometimes visited lower slopes and valleys both in the neighbourhood of Simla and in Chamba and the Jumna valley, but my examination of these lower levels has been too imperfect to admit of my attempting anything like so complete a list of their fern flora as for the range of elevations between the limits above specified. To the ferns occurring between 4,500 and 10,500 feet, therefore, this list is restricted.
