GLEICHENIA. 



217 



thicker texture ; in fact, it is a very compact-habited plant (Fig. 48). The 

 under -part of its lobes, which, instead of being circinate (rolled inwards), are 

 perfectly flat, is of a beautiful silvery colour. This variety is also known in 

 gardens under the name of G. c. glaum. 



G. C. semi-YGStita — se-miv-es-ti'-ta (half- clothed), Lahlllardiere. 



A handsome, stove variety, native of New Caledonia and Malacca, 

 differing from the species, and also from its other forms, by its close 

 habit and very erect mode of 

 oTowth. It is further distinct on 

 account of the intensely deep 

 green colour and shining nature 

 of the upper side of its leaflets, 

 the segments of which are per- 

 fectly flat, and also by the 

 total absence of any glaucous 

 tint on their under-surface. The 

 stems and stalks of the segments 

 are densely covered with short 

 hairs of a ferruginous (rusty) 

 colour. Fig. 49 is reduced from 

 Col. Beddome's " Ferns of British 

 India," by the kind permission 

 of the author. — Lowe, Ferns 

 British and Exotic, viii., t. 54. 



Fig. 49. Frond of Gleichenia circiimta semi-vestita 

 G. c. speluncae — spe-lun' "CcB Q nat. size). 



(cavern-loving). Brown. 



Perhaps this rare, large-growing and essentially distinct variety is the 



most handsome and decorative of the whole group of plants with beaded 



fronds. It is a native of New South Wales and Tasmania, and is easily 



recognised by its pendent but not curving fronds, which are produced in 



abundance and divided into elegantly -arching or pendulous leaflets, loosely 



and gracefully set. These fronds vary considerably, not only in size, but also 



in the degree of ramification ; and their loosely-set segments are very distinctly 



