102 FERNS OP THE LAKE COUNTRY 



or decumbent, furnished with a few scales on the 

 crown, forming tufts, which in favourable circumstances 

 grow into masses rather large in comparison with the 

 diminutive nature of the plant. The stipes is scaly 

 and articulated, or jointed, at a short distance from the 

 base, so that in age the upper part with the fronds 

 falls away, the lower part still adhering to the caudex. 

 The fronds are seldom more than four inches high, 

 offcener less ; their form is lanceolate, varying in 

 breadth, pinnate, the pinnse usually set on nearly or 

 quite opposite in pairs, obtusely oblong, with the mar- 

 gin deeply lobed or pinnatifid. They are of a thick 

 dull-looking texture, and are more or less clothed on 

 both surfaces, but especially on the veins beneath, with 

 minute bristle-like scales and shining jointed hairs, 

 among which the sori lie almost concealed. The vena- 

 tion of the segments of the pinnse consists of a rather 

 indistinct midvein, from which the smaller veins, simple 

 or branched, extend to the margin near which the sori 

 are produced. The indusia are peculiar in that they 

 are not placed as covers to the sori, but attached under 

 them. When very young, indeed, they enclose them ; 

 but later they split from above into narrow scale-like 

 segments, not easily distinguished without a glass from 

 the frond-hairs among which they lie. In the full- 

 grown state the sori lie in tufts of hair-like scales 

 formed of the torn margins of the indusium, the latter 

 being attached to the frond at the point beneath the 

 capsules. No other native Ferns possess a structure 

 at all approaching to this. 



