THE BLADDER FERNS. 213 



bulbiferc?). In such places it grows in great luxuriance 

 and is a singularly decorative species, with long narrow 

 fronds hanging downward over the face of the rock in 

 such profusion as to cover it like a curtain. 



Full grown fronds are frequently four feet long. They 

 are on short stipes and twice pinnate, the oblong pinnules 

 toothed, or the lowest deeply lobed. In cutting, the pin- 

 nae have considerable resemblance to those of C. fragilis, 

 but the frond as a whole is very different, being widest 

 across the basal pinnae and tapering outward with regular 

 gradations to the long slender apex. The blades are 

 finely glandular underneath and very fragrant specimens 

 are occasionally reported, the -fragrance being doubtless 

 due to these glands. 



In appearance the fertile and sterile fronds do not differ 

 materially. The sori are borne in what approximates a 

 double row on each pinnule, a sorus near the base of each 

 tooth. The indusium is not quite so evanescent in this 

 species as in C. fragilis though it usually withers when 

 the spores are ripe. In young fruiting fronds it may be 

 very clearly seen. Its apex is truncate. 



Although this species produces spores as freely as any, 

 its principal means of propagation is probably by the 

 bulblets which nearly every mature frond bears upon its 

 under surface. These are about the size of a grain of 

 pepper and are borne on one or several of the pinnae 

 usually in the apical half of the frond. They are in the 

 nature of adventitious buds and consist of two or three 

 cotyledon-like masses enclosing one or more rudimentary 

 fronds. When these come in contact with the soil, they 

 put forth roots and are ready to begin life for themselves. 

 They form new plants much sooner than spores could 

 and the early fronds have less of the juvenile form. 



