ATHYKIUM. 127 



has now for several years stood the test of cultivation, its 

 peculiarities being retained. It has rather small fronds, 

 usually about a foot, or a foot and a half long, lanceolate, 

 and remarkable for the manner in -nhich they taper from 

 their broad centre, equally towards the base and apex. 

 These fronds have a spreading or horizontal mode of 

 growth ; their pinnules are oblong and bluntly toothed, 

 the teeth being almost always quite simple, not two or 

 three-notched, as is usual in the other forms ; they are 

 attached closelv together, at right ano;los with the continu- 

 ously-winged rachis of the pinna?. The sori are very short, 

 often curved in a horse- shoe form, and crowded. 



There are, besides, several curious monstrous varieties of 

 considerable horticultural interest. One called multifidum, 

 of which several variations have now been met with, has 

 the tips of all the pinna), as well as of the frond itself, 

 multifid or tasselled, which gives it a very elegant appear- 

 ance. Another, called depauperatum, or raiuosum, is 

 smaller, with the pinnne reduced and irregularly tasselled, 

 and the apex of the frond more deeply split into ragged- 

 looking tasselled lobes. Another, called crispum, is a 

 dwarf tufted plant, no larger than a bunch of curled pars- 

 ley, which it much resembles, its fronds being curiously 



