44 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



have perished. Sometimes in cultivation the perfect fronds are not 

 produced till the second year." — ' Nature Printed Ferns,' 8vo. ed. 

 vol. i. p. 110. 



Annual Maidenhair. 



GENUS VI.— C RYPTOGRAMME. R. Brown. 



Fronds produced from the upper part of the caudex, approximate, 

 dimorphous, the fertile fronds contracted ; stipes not articulated to 

 the caudex. Yeins forked or simple, free. Sori roundish or oval, at 

 the extremity of the ultimate veins, ultimately confluent so as to 

 form a submarginal line covered by the reflexed margin of the frond. 

 Indusium absent. Sterile frond with the margins not reflexed. 



Name from /<pwros (krwptos) hidden, and ypafAfxy (gramme*) a line, on account of the 

 lines of sori being concealed by the reflexed margin of the frond. 



CRYPTOGRAMME CRISPA. B.Brown. 



Plate 1844. 



Babenh. Crypt. Vase. Europ. Exsicc. No. 42. 



Allosorus crispus, Bernhardt. Newman, Brit. Ferns, ed. iii. p. 35. Moore, Nat. Print. 



Brit. Ferns, 8vo. ed. Vol. I. p. 100. Milde, Fil. Europ. p. 23. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ. 



et Helv. ed. ii. p. 95. Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 83. Gren. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. 



Vol. III. p. 641. Babenh. 1. c. 

 Pteris crispa, Linn. ms. Eng. Bot. No. 1160 ; and Eng. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 19. 

 Osmunda crispa, Linn. Spec. Plant, p. 1522. 



Rootstock shortly creeping, dividing into numerous crowns. 

 Fronds of two forms on the same plant. Fertile frond with the stipes 

 usually twice as long as the lamina, sparingly furnished with lanceolate 

 scales when young, ultimately naked. Lamina triangular-ovate or 

 ovate, firm, pale green, ultimately yellowish-green, glabrous, tripin- 

 nate or more rarely bipinnate or quadripinnate ; the ultimate pinna? 

 shortly stalked, or contracted towards the base, oblong elliptical 

 fusiform or oblong-cylindrical, with the margins recurved and nearly 

 concealing the sori, which are ultimately confluent. Sterile frond with 

 the stipes usually twice as long as the lamina. Lamina membranous, 

 firm, bright green, deltoid-ovate or triangular-ovate, 2 or 3 times 

 pinnate, the ultimate pinna? obovate or oblanceolate, wedge-shaped 

 at the base, incised or toothed with the teeth blunt; the veins 

 running into the teeth, but not quite reaching their apex. Both 

 kinds of frond deciduous. 



