114 PTERIS SERRULATA. 



An evergreen stove Fern. 



A native of the East Indies, Japan, and China. 



Fronds slender, glabrous, pinnate; the pinnae being linear, 

 rather pendulous, and would be more so were it not that the 

 fronds hold up one another. The lower pinnae bipartite or 

 bipinnatifid and petiolulate; the upper ones adnate. Decurrent 

 at their inferior base. The margin of the sterile fronds serrate; 

 the fertile fronds have narrow linear segments. Fronds lateral 

 or terminal, attached to a short creeping rhizoma. Nearly all 

 the fronds fertile. 



Length of frond from twelve to eighteen inches; colour light 

 green. 



I am indebted to M. Schott, Director of the Imperial Gardens, 

 Vienna, for fronds of this species. 



There are several varieties of this species, two of which are 

 here noticed. 



Var. A. is more pendulous in habit, taking a character mid- 

 way between P. serrulata and P. umbrosa. 



Var. B. is much more dwarf, not so many-branched, only 

 the two lowest pinnae being branched. The plant was received 

 from Mr. James, of Vauvert, in Guernsey, under the name of 

 P. falcata. 



There is a variety of this species which only grows three 

 inches high, and having a peculiar rugose habit. It was raised 

 (from spores brought from the islands of the Indian Sea,) at 

 Wentworth, by Mr. J. Henderson. It is known under the 

 name of P. serrulata, minor. 



Introduced into England in the year 1770. 



Included in the Catalogues of Messrs. E. G. Henderson, of 

 St. John's Wood; Bass and Brown, of Sudbury; Kennedy, of 

 Covent Garden; Veitch, of Exeter; Veitch, Jun., of Chelsea; 

 Sim, of Foot's Cray; Cooling, of Derby; A. Henderson, of 

 Pine-apple Place; Masters, of Canterbury; Rollisson, of Tooting; 

 Parker, of Holloway; and Stansfield and Son, of Todmorden. 



The illustration is from a plant in my own collection. 



