PLATYCERIUM. 



79 



of broad, blunt segments (Fig. 30) of a spongy texture and pale green colour, 

 covered whe nyoung with a light, woolly substance, which gradually disappears 

 as the frond becomes mature. The fertile fronds, 4ft. to 6ft. long and of 

 a pendulous nature, are usually produced in pairs and provided with a broadly 

 wedge-shaped disk : this becomes completely covered with the fructification, 

 which forms a large, triangular patch, and it bears at each corner a repeatedly- 

 forked division extending a 

 good distance beyond it, but 

 always remaining barren. — 

 Hooker, Species Filicum, v., 

 p. 284 ; Filices Exoticce, t. 86. 

 Beddome, Ferns of British 

 India, t. 326. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, iii., 

 p. 157. Lowe, Ferns British 

 and Exotic, vii., t. 64. 



P. Hillii— Hil-li-i (Hill's), 



Moore. 

 This very handsome 

 Fern, native of Queensland, 

 where it was discovered in 

 1878, is very closely related 

 to P. alcicorne majus — so 

 much so that, until the 



plants attain their full development, it is very difficult to distinguish one 

 from the other. P. ffillii has been exhaustively described by the late Thomas 

 Moore, in the " Gardeners' Chronicle " (New Series, x., p. 429), and we cannot 

 do better than extract from his very accurate description the following : " The 

 rootstock forms a solid mass closely invested by the sterile fronds. The perfect 

 fronds are erect, IJft. long, several spring up close together ; in the young 

 state they are clothed with white, stellate (star-like) hairs. The mature fronds 

 are very thinly covered with minute scales, which are eventually rubbed off. 

 The basal portion is about 1ft. high and 8in. broad, tapering gradually down- 

 wards to the short stalk. The ramifications of the lamina (or limb) are 



Fig. 30. Platycerium grande 



(much reduced). 



