174 eiirhabt's fern. 



the third, and so on. Young expanded fronds, of the natural 

 size, are shown at b, page 169 ; in every instance they were 

 sketched from living and growing examples, a vigorous plant 

 having been most obligingly sent me by Mr. R. Jacob. The 

 stipes is of nearly equal length with the frond, very erect, and 

 clothed with scattered, broad, obtuse, short, semitransparent, 

 pale brown, uniformly coloured scales. The frond itself is 

 erect, narrow, linear, and pinnate : the pinnee, which are at- 

 tached by the stalk only, are generally rather distant, short, 

 broad at the base, nearly triangular and pinnate, or deeply pin- 

 natifid : the pinnules are very blunt at the apex, and serrated 

 both at the apex and along the sides ; they are decurrent or 

 united together at the base, and almost invariably attached to 

 the midrib of the pinnae by their greatest diameter. When the 

 frond is very luxuriant and fruitful, the pinnse become much 

 more elongate, and the pinnules more remote. 



The lateral veins of the pinnules are many-branched, and 

 the anterior branch bears a circular cluster of capsules about 

 half-way between the midvein and the margin : the clusters are 

 covered by a flat, reniform involucre, the margins of which are 

 sinuate, but not jagged or torn ; and I have not been able to 

 detect, either on its margin or disk, the slightest appearance of 

 glands. In luxuriant sj)ecimens the clusters are much crowded, 

 and finally become confluent ; they are alwaj's confined to the 

 upper part of the frond. 



Cttltttrc. 



I find that this fern, whether exposed or in a greenhouse, re- 

 quires a soil composed almost entirely of turfy peat, abundance 

 of water, and only just so much charcoal at the bottom of the 

 pot as will keep the water, in which it should constantly stand, 

 from putrefying. It is by no means an ornamental fern : erect, 

 fragile, constantly broken by the wind, and very liable to pre- 

 mature decay at the apex, it is only desirable as affording the 

 means of botanical comparison with cognate species. It likes 

 full exposure to the sun. 



