DAVALLIA. 



119 



flattened rhizomes (prostrate stems), densely covered with scales of a light 

 brown colour, are of two kinds. The barren ones, 2in. to Sin. long, and about 

 IJin. broad at their base, are triangular in outline ; their upper segments, of 

 a leathery texture, and of a dark shining-green colour, are broad and slightly 

 toothed. The fertile fronds have their seg- 

 ments more finely divided, more distantly 

 placed, and deeply and sharply toothed 

 (Fig. 25), which characters give the plant 

 a very elegant appearance. Both kinds of 

 fronds are borne on slender stalks, 2in. to 

 4in. long, and have their rachis (stalk of 

 the leafy portion) narrowly winged. The 

 sori (spore masses) are placed in the teeth 

 on both sides. — -Hooher, Species Filicum, i., 

 p. 154. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 i., p. 445. 



To be grown to perfection, this little 

 gem requires a warm temperature and moist 

 atmosphere, although it is not partial to 

 watering overhead. It succeeds remarkably well, and forms a very handsome 

 little specimen, when grown on a pyramid of fibrous peat. 



Fig. 25. Davallia alpina 



(i nat. size). 



D. (Microlepia) amboynensis— Mi-crol-ep'-i-a ; am-boy-nen'-sis (from 

 Amboyna), Hooker. 

 A stove species, native of Amboyna and the Moluccas, with fronds Din. 

 to 12in. long, spear-shaped, tripinnate (three times divided to the midrib), 

 and borne on naked stalks Ift. to IJft. long and of a dull brown colour. 

 The leaflets are much larger at the base of the frond ; the others are close, 

 spear-shaped, and deeply pinnatifid (cut nearly to the midrib), with peculiarly 

 ascending segments near the base, and on the inner side of which the sori 

 (spore masses) are situated. — Hooker, Species Filicum, i., p. 178, t. 56c. 



D. (Humata) angustata — Hum-a'-ta ; an-gus-ta'-ta (narrow), Wallich. 



This singular little, stove Fern, native of the ]\Ialayan Peninsula and 

 Islands, and which Beddome says is also found gTowing on trees in Penang, 



