83 



SPECIMENS of the two following ferns were not obtained sufficiently 

 early to be introduced in their proper order. The genus 

 Gymnogramma ought to follow Polypodium. 



Genus GYMNOGRAMMA. 



GEN. CHAR. Sori linear, naked, forked, eventually confluent. 

 Named from the Greek yu/ivo?, naked, and ypdfjL/jLa, a line or 



letter-, the situation of the sori, without indusium, upon the forked 

 veins of the frond, presenting some resemblance to letters, or other- 

 wise from their linear form. 



GYMNOGRAMMA LEPTOPHYLLA. TAB. XL VIII. 



Fronds ovate, sub-deltoid, bipinnate, fragile : pinnae roundish 

 wedge-shaped, three-lobed, the lobes cut and toothed, obtuse. 



A native of the south of Europe and of the Atlantic Islands, 

 this has no farther claim to a place among British species than 

 from its occurrence in Jersey, where it is not very local in its dis- 

 tribution, being found in several parts of the island growing in 

 shaded moist places among mosses and Marchantia, especially on 

 hedge-banks and near springs, in a light sandy loam. It is a 

 biennial plant, so far as that it appears to develope from the spores 

 late in the summer, not sending up the longer fructifying fronds 

 until the following year. The early fronds are small, very little 

 divided, spreading over the ground, and usually barren ; the later 

 rise to the height of three or four inches, are generally few in 

 number, and varying in division, according to their luxuriance 

 being bi- or tripinnate, and the pinnae and pinnules opposite or 

 alternate : the ultimate pinnules are bluntly wedge-shaped, or 

 rounded, about three-lobed, and the lobes terminate with two blunt 

 teeth. The linear sori depend upon the termination of the vein on 

 which they develope j this is sometimes simple, but more generally 

 forked, each branch as it diverges bearing its portion of the thecae, 

 so that the sorus, commencing on the principal vein, becomes forked 

 likewise : in maturity they are confluent and often cover the whole 

 under-surface of the pinnules. 



The chief requisites for this species in cultivation are a light 

 friable soil and a moist atmosphere : it appears to grow with 

 equal luxuriance in sandy loam or a mixture of peat and sand. 

 In the hothouse it springs up spontaneously after the first intro- 

 duction. 



L2 



