Victorian Plants. 523 



Segments of fronds quite short ... ... 2179 



2179. Flaccid, the frond-segments membranous. 



Small and weak, mostly prostrate, at least the lower portion ; 

 fronds very narrow ; rhachis filiform-elongated towards 

 the summit, there much beyond the segments bare and 

 often very flexuous ; segments short, from roundish- to 

 semiorbicular-rhomboid, usually in rather distant pairs 

 or some scattered, always denticulated in front, seldom 

 deeply lobed ; fruit-masses few or several to any of the 

 segments. Figure 149. A, flabellif olium. 



Eigid, the frond-segments firm. 



Tufted; fronds very narrow, their rhachis very slender, 

 blackish and shining as well as the stem ; segments usually 

 from elliptic- to orbicular-ovate, bluntly denticulated, 

 mostly opposite, always sessile, occasionally minute ; 

 fruit-masses rather crowded. A. Trich.oman.es. 



ASFXDXUJK. 



2180. Fronds simply pinnate. 



Tall, beset with short soft hairlets ; fronds long-stalked, 

 membranous, broad -lanceolar in outline ; segments 

 elongate-semilanceolar, often almost pinnatifid, nearly 

 truncate at the base, much narrowed at the summit, the 

 lobes blunt and entire ; fruit-masses generally biseriate 

 from any of the lobes to the carinular line of the segments ; 

 fruit- cover renate. A. molle. 



Fronds doubly or repeatedly pinnate ... ... 2181 



2181. Fronds often doubly pinnate. 



Tall, particularly very much so in subalpine regions ; fronds 

 circularly crowded, almost lanceolar in outline, quite 

 rigid, rather often proliferous at the summit, their stem and 

 rhachis generally much beset with shining pointed narrow 

 often dark-brown scalelets ; pinnas almost semi-lanceolar 

 in contour, very acute ; segments generally small, from 

 rhomboid- to ovate-lanceolar, somewhat oblique, irregu- 

 larly and often deeply and always sharply serrated ; 

 fruit-cover orbicular, occasionally quite undeveloped. 



A. aculeatum. 



Fronds often repeatedly pinnate ... ... ... 2182 



