THE SMALL-LEAVED GYMNOGRAM 
ишег; in one such example now before us, which is 
livided on the same dichotomous plan as the 
p 
nch long, the pinnae are each twice dichotomously lobed, and each ultimate 
has 
five-cighths of an 
its si nds of this pinnate 
nearly parallel and its apex blunt and two-cleft. Two or three fr 
character, each successive. one larger and more divided than the preceding, and all broader and more 
during the adolescent state of the plants. 
leafy in character than the subsequent ones, are produ 
Hit and become more compoundly divided, and 
our of the individual plant, reach to their full 
After this stage has been pas 
in two, three, ог four stages, according to the vi 
development. The intermediate fronds are from one-and-a-half inch to three inches high, and are 
ds are from three to six or eight 
distinetly bipinnate, and generally fertile. The fully developed 
ow erect mature fronds are oblong ovate, bi- or tri-pinnate, and fertile 
ular, alternate, Pinnules ovato-cuneate, about three-lobed, the lobes 
throughout, Pinna ovate triangı 
obovate, and notched at the apex. ‘The pinnules are scarcely stalked, their base tapering down to a 
narrow and slightly decurrent attachment, Specimens of vigorous growth become tripinnate, by the 
more complete separation of the lobes of the pinnules, 
of a vein which forms by dichotomy а branch at the 
Venation of the ordinary pinnules consisti 
base of each lobe ; this vein becomes again branched in the same dichotomous manner near the centre 
of the lobe, its two venules being directed the two apical teeth, and terminating 
within the margin. Occasionally the mot toothed, vein is simple 
Fructifcation occupying the whole back of the frond, without indusia, Sori linear, forked, occupying 
nearly the entire length of the venules, and а portion of the vein below the dichotomy, henee fork 
row lobes nearly to their 
that is, diverging in two lines from near the base of the pinne along the 
apes, at first distinct, but eventually becoming confluent into one mass. When the vein is simple the 
оган is simply linear. Spore-cuses nearly globose, Spores roundish or bluntly tr 
striato-punetate, dark brown-purple 
Duration. "The rhizome is annual, and the development of the plant consequently rap 
Jersey we learn that the prothallus is developed in the damp Inte autumnal months, being perfe 
formed in November, Ву January three or four fronds have been produced; in April or May the 
growth is mature; by August the plants have perished, Sometimes in cultivation the fronds are not 
produced till the second year 
This Fern clearly belongs to the genus Gymnapramma, which is distingui 
Љу the greater length, and the more or less frequently forked condition of the sori. This group, 
itself not too distinct however from Grammitis, some modern botanists have desired to divide into 
several genera, one of which, Anogramma, was proposed expressly for this species by Link. Beyond 
the marks of habit and aspect, however, there is nothing to separate generically any of the free-veined 
one are insufficiont 
Gymnogrammas, and such marks 
No other British Fern approaches at all nearly to the Small-leaved Gymnogram, either in aspect, or 
in botanical characters. 
Tt succeeds with very little caro from the cultivator, and like its West Indian ally, Gymnagramma 
chærophylla, scatters its spores, and be genial situations. Any light 
sandy soil suits it, That in which it grows naturally in Jersey, and of which Mr. Ward kindly gave us 
a portion richly furnished with its spores, is a sandy loam ; and scattered on the surface of a flower-pot 
this yielded an abundant crop of plants. The young plants like shade, moisture, and a temperate 
climate, which conditions will ensure their successful growth. Propagation must either be trusted to 
the natural scattering of the spores, or a frond or two Just arrived at maturity should be preserved 
and the spores deposited towards autumn in the situations where plants are required. We learn from 
who have grown the plant in cold situations, that the dev 
beyond the production of the prothallus until the second year. Our plants have been strictly annual. 
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