24: ASPLENIUM PR^MORSUM. 



ticlium angulare, or Pohjpodium vulgare, we at once recognise 

 features, in many respects, equally distinct with those which 

 in foreign Ferns have been regarded as sufficient in order to 

 consider them different species. This difficulty is not of so much 

 moment to the ordinary cultivator, for it matters but little to 

 him whether the plant he is cultivating be called a species or 

 a variety, providing its name is generally adopted, so that the 

 plant may be recognised from that of other species or varieties. 



This handsome Fern is, wherever grown, looked upon as an 

 especial favourite, being very distinct in the form of its fronds, 

 and in the habit of its growth. 



It is a native of the West Indies, Mexico, New Holland, 

 Teneriffe, and the Canary Islands, 



The form of the frond is lanceolate, or triangularly elongate, 

 it is bipinnate, and the pinnae are sharply elongated, narrowing 

 to a point at the apex; pinnules distant, cuneate lanceolate, 

 three or five lobed, the middle lobe being elongate, margin 

 inciso-serrate. 



Length of the frond eighteen inches to two feet; colour 

 light green. 



Rachis and stipes completely covered with thin brown scales, 

 terminal, rising from a stout creeping rhizoma. 



I am indebted to the Curator of the Cambridge Botanic 

 Gardens, and to Messrs. Booth, of Hamburg, for plants of 

 this species; and to Mr. Henderson, of AVentworth; Mr. Ingram, 

 of the Royal Gardens, Windsor; Miss Kingston, of Colwick; 

 Mr. Norman, of Hull; and to Mr. Sim, of Foot's Cray, for 

 fructified fronds. 



It is in the Fern Catalogues of Messrs. RoUisson, of Tooting; 

 Booth, of Hamburg; Masters, of Canterbury; Parker, of Hol- 

 loway; Sim, of Foot's Cray; and Veitch, of Exeter. 



The illustration is from a plant in my own collection. 



Mr. Henderson, of Wentworth, has forwarded the fronds from 

 which the following wood-cuts have been executed. As the 

 different forms of Asj^lenium prcemorsum vary in a striking 

 manner from each other, it has been deemed desirable to give 

 a figure of each. A. laceratum of Hooker and Greville, {A. 

 cuneatum of the same authors,) is a pretty little Fern from the 

 Spanish Mains. It is very distinct, yet bears strong resemblance 

 in its manner of fructifying, to the A. prcemorsum. The A. ' 



