58 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



C. (Adiantopsis) Seemanni — Ad-i-ant-op'-sis ; See-man'-ni (Seemann's), 

 Hooker. 



A very pretty, stove Fern, native of the Sierra Madre, North- West 

 Mexico, but possibly only a form of C. microphylla, from which it differs 

 only by its distinct involucres. — Hooker, Species Filicum, ii., p. 85, t. 97a. 



C. (Eucheilanthes) Sieberi — Eu-cheil-anth'-es ; Sie'-ber-i (Sieber's), 

 Kunze. 



This very elegant, delicate-looking, greenhouse species, also known as 

 C. Preissiana, is a native of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and 

 the Isle of Pines. Its light-coloured fronds, Sin. to Gin, long and lin. to 

 l^in. broad, are produced from a creeping rhizome (prostrate stem) and borne 

 on wiry, polished stalks 3in.- to 6in. long and of a dark chestnut-brown 

 colour. The spear-shaped leaflets, lin. to l^in. long, ^in. broad, are disposed 

 in pairs and opposite ; the lowest are often distant and divided into oblong 

 leafits cut down to the rachis (stalk of the leafy portion) in the lower 

 part. The sori (spore masses), so small as to be reduced to mere j)oints, 

 are covered with small, narrow, pale brown involucres, usually separate, but 

 sometimes continuous along the edge of the segments. — Hooker, Species 

 Filicum, ii., p. 83, t. 97b. — Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 308. 

 Lowe, Ferns British and Exotic, iv., t. 22. 



C. (Physapteris) speciosissima — Phy-sap'-ter-is ; spec-i-o-sis'-sim-a 

 (most beautiful), A. Brongniart. 

 This robust-gTowing, greenhouse species, native of Guatemala and Mexico, 

 where it occurs at an elevation of 12,000ft., is the same plant as the one 

 named Plecosorus mexicanus by Fee, who considered it distinct from 

 Cheilanthes through its fructification not being quite marginal. Its ample, 

 yet elegantly-cut fronds, 1ft. to 2ft. long, 4in. to 6in. broad, spear-shaped 

 and tripinnate (three times divided to the midrib), are borne on stout, erect 

 stalks 3in. to 6in. long, densely clothed with large, spear-shaped scales, l|in. 

 long by Jin. broad, of a rusty-brown colour. The numerous leaflets, 2in. 

 to 3in. long, spreading and spear-shaped, are divided into close, hnear- 

 oblong pinnules (leafits) of a somewhat leathery texture and cut down to 

 the rachis (stalk of the leafy portion) into numerous smaU, beaded segments. 



