67 
parent plants. In one of the side houses of - conservatories, 
opening out of the central house, a few plants of A. Stemaria 
and A. angolense, in various stages of ae are to be 
seen, side by side on a low bench, where they form a curious 
contrast to each other. Although A. Stemaria belongs to the 
antlered group of the species, its first little leaves are entire. 
They are so thickly coated with their starry scales that they have 
a hoary look, especially on the back and tip, not unlike that of 
young mullein leaves. Later this covering wears off more or 
less, and the fully grown fertile leaves are branched, thick, stiff, 
and leathery, with a smooth, highly polished, dark green upper 
surface only lightly dusted with the infinitesimal silvery stars. 
A. angolense is a very different looking plant. Each specimen 
bears one pair of sterile leaves and one of fertile. The pair of 
fertile are carried, as in all the stag-horns, directly in front of 
the sterile. They vere slightly, rise a i. and then fold 
over and hang downward, strikingly like the flaps of the ‘‘ele- 
phant’s ears.” aoe are rather thick but ae ea a bright 
green, conspicuously veined upper surface. The under surface 
has a pinkish-white woolly look, and the spore- see area 
appears first as a slightly raised merely deeper-hued spot. The 
sterile leaves are bright green both sides, and the veins visible, 
but veiled by a thin coating of slightly discolored scales, which 
gives them a russet or purplish aspect. 
The photograph shown on plate CXII is taken of a section of 
the central house. It shows a plant of A. Stemaria, on the left, 
and gives a clear view of two plants of A. grande. The plants of 
the latter species are the largest of the stag-horns in these con- 
servatories, and the most showy in aay ass making 
the others appear pee beside them. Their characteristic 
conspicuous sterile leaves projecting in masses ae the baskets, 
with the fertile leaves hanging far below, can be seen from the 
illustration, 
MARGARET SLOSSON. 
New York BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
