180 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



D. (Cibotium) guatemalensis — Cib-o'-ti-um ; gua-tem-a-len'-sis (from 

 Guatemala), Baker. 

 This is a very strong-growing, arborescent, stove species, having oblong, 

 tripinnate fronds furnished with oblong- spear- shaped leaflets 2ft. or more long 

 and lOin. to 12in. broad. The narrow, sharp-pointed pinnules (leafits), about 

 fin. broad, are cut into close, spear-shaped, toothed segments of a somewhat 

 leathery texture and beautifully glaucous (bluish-green) underneath. The very 

 small sori (spore masses) are disposed eight to ten to the largest segments, 

 where they are imbricated (overlapping) and placed obliquely with the edge. 

 — Hooher^ Synopsis Filicum, p. 461. 



D. (Patania) Henriettee — Pat-an'-i-a ; Hen-ri-ett'-a^ (Miss H. Baker's), 

 Baker. 



A pretty, stove species, of comparatively small dimensions, native of 

 Antanarivo, in Madagascar. It has somewhat the general appearance of 

 D. cicutaria incisa, but the leaflets and pinnules (leafits) are much fewer and 

 diminish rapidly in size up the rachises (stalks). Its fronds, deltoid and 

 quadripinnate (in form of the Greek delta, A, and four times divided to the 

 midrib), are borne on short, naked stalks ; their leaflets, also deltoid, are 

 7in. to Sin. long and furnished with distinctly -stalked pinnules of the same 

 shape, cut down into segments that are wedge-shaped on the lower side at the 

 base, and of moderately firm texture. The sori (spore masses), hemispherical 

 in shape, are placed on the upper side of the ultimate segments. — RooJcer, 

 Synopsis Filicum, p. 462. 



D. incisa— in-ci'-sa (cut). A variety of D. cicutaria. 



D. (Eudicksonia) Lathami — Eu-dick-so'-m-a ; La'-tham-i (Latham's), 

 Moore. 



This noble, greenhouse Fern is the only instance known at present of 

 an artificially-produced hybrid of arborescent habit. It was raised at the 

 Birmingham Botanic Gardens by Mr. Latham, who states that it is the result 

 of a cross efl^ected between D. antarctica and D. arborescens. It certainly 

 possesses all the characters of a plant intermediate between these two species, 

 and appears to have retained the exceptionally robust nature of the latter, 

 combined with the elegant character of the former ; for its fronds, tripinnate 



