THE FERN PARADISE. 



the latter a dark rich purple, and the former 

 the leafy part a dark shining green. In luxu- 

 riant specimens the stem of the frond is as long as, 

 often longer than its other part. But in small 

 specimens found growing on walls the stem is 

 usually much shorter than the rest of the frond. 

 The latter, in its leafy part, is triangular in shape ; 

 and alternately placed on opposite sides of its 

 rachis or mid-rib are a number of triangular- 

 shaped branches, gradually, however, as they 

 diminish in size and length towards the point of 

 the frond, becoming less and less distinctly trian- 

 gular, until the branches near the extreme point of 

 the top are mere leaflets, bluntly club-shaped and 

 indented, and finally merging in the tip of the 

 frond. The lowest branches on each side of the 

 frond, being distinctly triangular, are again divided 

 into triangular- shaped leaflets, which follow the 

 same arrangement towards the point of the 

 branch, as the branches follow, as already de- 

 scribed, towards the point of the frond. The 

 triangular- shaped leaflets at the base of the lower 

 branches of the frond are, in luxuriant speci- 

 mens of the Black Maidenhair Spleenwort, again 



374 



