FERN FAMILY. 499 



looking not unlike an animal's paw ; fronds few, smooth, broadly tri- 

 angular, S'-lSyong and about as wide, 3-4-pinnate ; pinnules cut into a 

 few narrow lobes ; these are directed upwards, bearing at or just below 

 the end a single fruit dot ; indusium whitish, deeply half-cup-shaped. 



D. tenuifdlia, Swartz. India and China ; rootstock creeping, crisp with 

 short, chaffy hairs ; fronds smooth, l-2 high, broadly lanceolate, 3-4- 

 pinnate ; smallest divisions narrowly wedge-shaped, bearing at the trun- 

 cated ends one or two fruit dots; indusium brownish, mostly broader 

 than deep. 



22. DICKSONIA. (For James Dickson, an English botanist.) The 

 species all but one tropical or in the southern hemisphere. Many of 

 them tree-like. 



D. pilosiriscula, Willd. Moist shady places, from N. Car., N.; root- 

 stock creeping, slender ; fronds scattered, thin, minutely glandular, pleas- 

 antly odorous, lanceolate, long-pointed, 2-3 high, mostly bipinnate ; 

 pinnules pinnatifid ; the divisions toothed, each bearing a minute fruit 

 dot at the upper margin ; indusium globular. 



D. antdrctica, Labill. Tree fern from New Zealand, a great ornament in 

 large conservatories ; trunk l-2 thick, sometimes many feet high, bear- 

 ing in a crown at the top many fronds, 6-9 long, 2-4 broad, coria- 

 ceous, twice pinnate ; pinnules oblong, acute, pinnatifid ; the oblong-ovate 

 divisions bearing 1-4 rather large fruit dots ; indusium prominent, plainly 

 two-valved. 



23. CYATHEA. (Name from the Greek word for a small cup, refer- 

 ring to the involucre.) Tree ferns from tropical countries. 



C. dealbata, Swartz. New Zealand, and the commonest one in cultiva- 

 tion ; trunk becoming 10-15 high ; fronds from the elevated crown, 

 5-7long, glaucous-green above and whitish beneath, 2- or 3-pinnate, 

 ovate-lanceolate or tapering from the base ; ultimate segments sickle- 

 shaped and conspicuously toothed. 



24. ALSOPHILA. (Greek words meaning grove-loving, the species 

 growing in tropical forests.) 



A. pruinata, Kaulf. S. Amer.; trunk low; rootstock short, clothed 

 with bright brown wool; fronds smooth, green above, pale and glaucous, 

 often almost white beneath, bipinnate ; pinnules deeply toothed ; fruit 

 dots solitary at the base of each tooth ; spore cases mixed with woolly 

 hairs. 



A. australis, Brown. The commonest species, from Tasmania and 

 Australia; trunk becoming 8-15 high, bearing a flat and spreading 

 crown of many 2-3-pinnate fronds 8-20 long and with stipes l-2 long, 

 light green above and bluish below ; pinnae l-2 long and 6'-12' broad ; 

 ultimate segments oblong-acute and somewhat falcate, serrate ; rhachis 

 rough and chaffy ; entire foliage thick and leathery. 



25. TRICHOMANES. (An ancient Greek name of some Fern, refer- 

 ring to the hair-like stalks. ) A large genus ; most of the species 

 tropical. 



T. radlcans. Swartz. On dripping rocks, Ky., and S., rare; fronds 

 pellucid, 4'-8' high, the stalk and rhachis narrowly winged, lanceolate, 

 pinnate, with 1-2-pinnatifid ovate pinnae ; involucres on short lobes, funnel- 

 shaped, with long-exserted receptacles. A broader and more compound 

 form is grown in Wardian cases. 



