64 GYMNOGRAMMA LEPTOPHYLLA. 



Jlemioniiis leptophylla, Lagasca. 



Anogramma leptophylla. Link. 



Osmunda leptophylla, Lamaeck. 



Acrostichum leptophylhim, De Candolle, 



Polypodium leptophylhim, LiNN^US. ScHKTJHE. 



Asplenium leptophyllum, Cavanilles. 



Anogramme leptophylla, Fee. 



Gymnogramma — Derived from the Greek, gymnos — naked, 



and gramme — a line, in allusion to the sori. Leptophylla — From the 



Greek, leptos — slender, and phnllon — a leaf. 



A PRETTY diminutive Fern, the only British, representative 

 of the lovely genus of Gymnogramma so well known and 

 esteemed in hot-houses for their gold and silver fronds. To 

 those who are unacquainted with these hot-house favourites, it 

 may be mentioned that Gymnogramma chrysophylla, G. 

 U Herminieri, G. ochracea, and G. sulphurea have a copious 

 golden powder on the under side of the fronds, and that G. 

 tartarea, G. calomelanos, G. pulchella, G. Peruviana, etc., have 

 this powder of a silvery or white hue; hence the popular 

 name of *'Gold and Silver Ferns." 



As a British plant it is only an inhabitant of the Island of 

 Jersey, where it grows plentifully in several places, more 

 especially near St. Aubin's, St. Haule, and St. Lawrence. 



It is a native of France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, 

 Sicily, Greece, Portugal, the Canary Isles, Azores, Madeira, 

 Algiers, Morocco, Abyssinia, Cape of Good Hope, Mexico, 

 Vera Cruz, Victoria, Tasmania, New Zealand, India, the Atlantic 

 Isles, and the Islands in the Persian Gulf. 



Gymnogramjna leptophylla selects moist banks having a south 

 or south-west aspect: in these situations it is found growing 

 amongst mosses (especially Fissidens hryoides) and liverwort, 

 {Marchantia polymorpha.) It is an annual, springing up in 

 November, developing fronds in January, and being fully 

 grown by the middle of April. Its spores are scattered, and 

 the plant itself dead by the end of July. 



G. leptophylla, although in other respects very distinct, 

 nevertheless has the delicate fragile semblance of the Cystopteris 

 family, and with the exception of G. clicarophylla, a West 



