THK SMALL-LEAVED GYMNOGUASL 



arc divided on the same dichotoinous plan as the former ; in one such example now before us, which is 

 five-eighths of an inch long, the pinna! are each twiee dichotouiously lobed, and each ultimate lobe has 

 its sides nearly parallel, and its apex blunt and two-clcfu Two or three fronds of this pinnate 

 character, each successive one larger and more divided than the preceding, and all broader and more 

 leafy in character than the subsequent ones, are produced during the adolescent state of the plants. 

 After this stage has been )>asscd, the fronds acquire height and become more comj>ouudiy divided, and 

 in two, three, or four stages, according to the vigour of the individual plants reach to their full 

 development The intermediate fronds arc from ono-and-a-half inch to three inches high, and are 

 distinctly bipinnate, and generally fertile. The fully developed fronds are from threo te six or eight 

 inches high, and grow erect. These mature fronds are oblong ovate, bi- or tri-phmatc, and fertile 

 throughout. Ptnnm ovate triangular, alternate. Pinnules ovato*cuncatc, about thrce-lobcd, the lobes 

 obovate, and notched at the apex. The pinnules arc 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. 



Venation of the ordinary pinnules consisting of a vein which forms by dichotomy a branch at the 

 base of each lobe ; this vein becomes again branched in the same dichotoinous manner near the centre 

 of the lobe, it** two venules being directed, one towards each of the two apical teeth, and terminating 

 within the margin. Occasionally the lobe is not toothed, and the vein is simple. 



Fructification occupying the whole back of tho frond, without indusia. Sort linear, forked, occupying 

 nearly the entire length of the venules, and a portion of the vein below the dichotomy, hence forked, 

 that is, diverging in two lines from near the base of the pinme along the narrow lobes nearly to their 

 apex, at first distinct, but eventually becoming confluent into one mass. When the vein is simple the 

 sorus is simply linear, Sporv-cascs nearly globose. S/wrcs roundish or bluntly triangular, faintly 

 stria to- punctate, dark brown-purple. 



Duration. The rhizome is annual, and the development of the plant consequently rapid. In 

 Jersey we learn that the prothallus is developed in the damp late autumnal mouths, being perfectly 

 formed in November. By 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 arc not 

 produced till the second year. 



This Fern clearly belongs to the genus Gtfmnogramma* which is distinguished from Grammitis 

 by the greater length, and the more or less frequently forked condition of the sori. This group, 

 itself not too distinct however from Grammitis, some modem botanists have desired to divide into 

 several genera, one of which. Anoffmmma, was proposed expressly for this species by Link, Beyond 

 the marks of habit and aspect, however, there is nothing to serrate generically any of the free-veined 

 Gifmnogrammm, and such marks alone are insufficient. 



No other British Fern approaches at all nearly to the Small-leaved CJymnogram, either in aspect, or 

 in botanical characters. 



It succeeds with very little care from the cultivator, and like its West Indian ally, Offmtwfframma 

 vhftftophjjlUi, scatters its spores, and becomes, as it were, a weed, in congenial 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 tlower-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 cither 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 

 several cultivators, who have grown the plant in cold situations, that the development has not gone 

 beyond the production of the prothallus until the second year. Our plants have been strictly annual. 



