5b KOTHOCHL.^NA ATIGENTEA. 



A stove Fern requiring mucli care in its cultivation, but the 

 attention given to it is well repaid when the plant becomes a 

 full-grown specimen. 



This species is a native of South America and Mexico, and 

 is an evergreen Fern. 



The form of the frond is triangularly ovate, sub-bipinnate, 

 the pinnules crenate and oblong-obtuse, the lower pinnules being 

 distant. 



The stipes, rachis, and even the midrib of the pinnae are 

 black and polished. The stipes scaly near the base. 



Sori linear and terminal, being composed of a single row 

 of spore-cases round each segment, immediately within the margin. 



The fronds rise out of a somewhat creeping rhizoma. 



The colour is a dull green above, beneath the farinose powder 

 renders it snowy-white. 



A dwarf species, having somewhat the appearance of a dimi- 

 nutive plant of the Cheilanthes farinosa of Hooker, the fronds 

 seldom as much as six inches in length. 



The only British catalogue which includes this Fern, appears 

 to be that of Mr. Sim, of the Foot's Cray Nursery, in Kent. 



The only plants which I possess are seedlings, raised in the 

 autumn from spores, and consequently not yet characteristic. 



I am indebted to Mr. Henderson, of "VVentworth; Mr. Sim, 

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

 fronds of N. argentea. 



The illustration is from a frond forwarded by Mr. Henderson, 

 of Wentworth. 



