PTERIS. 263 



rose colour, and when mature show leafits of a vivid dark green on their 

 upper portion, while their basal part is silvery-grey, the rachis or midrib 

 being of a bright purplish colour, which is retained as long as the frond 

 lasts. The diversity of colours in the fronds at the same time on each plant 

 adds considerably to its beauty. — Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 iii., p. 241. Lowe, New and Rare Ferns, t. 9. Botanical Magazine (as 

 P. quadriaurita tricolor), t. 5183. 



P. (Litobrochia) atrovirens — Li-tob-roch'-i-a ; a'-tro-vir'-ens (dark 

 green), Willdenoiv. 

 A stove species, of medium dimensions, native of the Guinea Coast and 

 Angola, with fronds Ift. to 2ft. long, borne on more or less prickly stalks 

 about 1ft. long. In general outline this plant much resembles the better- 

 known P. quadriaurita, from which it is principally distinguished through 

 the intercrossing of the veins of its fronds, and through its pinnules being 

 sometimes, but not always, furnished beneath with a row of weak prickles. 

 Another distinctive character is that the spore masses do not reach to the 

 point of the segments. This species is also known as P. spinulifera. — 

 Hooker, Species Filiciim, ii., p. 221. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 iii., p. 241. 



P. (Litobrochia) aurita — Li-tob-roch'-i-a ; au-ri'-ta (eared). A variety of 

 P. incisa. 



P. Bausei — Baus'-e-i (Bause's), Moore. 



One of the most striking of all the known garden hybrids, clearly showing 

 the distinctive characters of the parents from which, according to its raiser, 

 it is issue. These are stated to be P. semipinnata and a crested form of 

 P. serrulata, and P. Bausei appears, in habit, size, and formation of fronds, 

 to be intermediate between the two. Its densely-tufted fronds, about Iffc. 

 long and of a particularly erect and stiff nature, are borne on stalks Bin. 

 long and of a deep chestnut-brown colour. The leaflets scarcely exceed 2in. 

 in length ; the lowest are bipinnate, having four to six strap-shaped, narrow 

 leafits (pinnules), the latter gradually diminishing in number upwards towards 

 the summit of the frond, which for about half its length is simply pinnate, 

 and usually, though not invariably, terminates in a tassel of greater or lesser 



