18 GYMNOGRAMMA LEPTOPHYLLA. 



all the other species of Ferns in being an annual; and the in- 

 terest in this lovely plant is increased from the circumstance that 

 it is the solitary British representative of this magnificent tribe. 



G. leptophylla is a native of the warmer portions of Europe. 

 It is found in France, Brittany, Provence, Italy, Naples, Sicily, 

 Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Algeria, Abyssinia, Mexico, the 

 Island of Jersey, the Canary Isles, and in the Azores. 



It is a slender and delicate Fern, requiring to be cultivated 

 in a stove. 



The fronds are bipinnate and smooth, and the pinnules are 

 two or three-lobed, and of a roundish cuneate form, whilst 

 each individual lobe is bluntly dentate. This species seldom 

 bears more than two or three fronds at one time, which rise 

 out of a slightly hairy erect crown. The fronds are rigid, and 

 are two or three inches in length. They stand up erect from 

 the rhizoma. 



The fructified fronds are not contracted, and nearly the 

 whole of them are fertile. The sori are branched and become 

 confluent. 



G. leptophylla and G. chmrophylla are both so different in 

 habit and general appearance, from other members of this 

 elegant family, that great diversity of opinion is expressed 

 amongst the various authorities in cryptogamic botany, as to 

 whether it would not be better to remove them altogether from 

 Gymnogramma. Fee separates these two species, together with 

 about a dozen others, not in cultivation in England, and calls 

 them Anogramme. 



To the general observer, G. leptophylla bears some resemblance 

 to the Cystopteris family; but the arrangement of the fructifi- 

 cation and the form of the reproductive organs are very dis- 

 similar in these two tribes. Much confusion is prevented by 

 retaining such species as can with propriety be retained, in the 

 respective families in which they have so long been recognised, 

 and consequently, under which names they are familiar to Fern 

 cultivators generally. In the present instance it appears unwise 

 to alter the name from Gymnogramma, although it seems to 

 bear so little affinity to the Gymnogramma family. 



This species is added to our British plants from the circum- 

 stance of its occurrence in the Channel Islands, where it appears 

 to be widely distributed. 



