GYMNOGRAMME. 



241 



fronds, and in the smaller ones at the end of each of the leaflets. — Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, iv,, p. 550. 



G. C. C. Laucheana — Lauch-e-a'-na (Lauche's), Moore, 



This is a beautiful and symmetrical form, of dense habit. The fronds are 

 quite triangular in shape, and are borne on stout stalks only sufficiently long 

 to give them a gracefully -arching appearance, rendering it a most valuable 

 Fern for decoration. The under- side of the fronds is of a particularly bright 

 and uniform golden colour, which is retained as long as they remain on the 

 plants. Several forms of G. c. c. Laucheana, and notably the one called gigantea, 

 with fronds much longer but not triangular, are highly decorative, and even 

 -surpass the variety from which they have sprung. 



G. C. C. L. grandiceps — gran'-dic-eps (large-headed), Moore. 



Perhaps this is the most striking, if not literally the handsomest, of all 

 known Gold Ferns. Its fronds, less triangular than those of G. c. c. Laucheana, 

 are bipinnate (twice di\dded to the midrib), and terminate in a broadly-tasselled, 

 drooping apex ; their under- side is thickly covered with meal of a palish 

 yellow colour, and their segments, instead of being pointed as usual, are blunt 

 at the end. This sub-variety is best propagated by division of the crowns, 

 as seedlings seldom reproduce the plant in its true characters. — Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, iv., p. 550. 



G. C. C. L'Herminieri — L'Her-min-i-e'-ri (L'Herminier's), Kunze. 



Undoubtedly this is the prettiest of the many light sub-varieties or forms 

 of G. c. chrysophylla, than which it is slenderer and smaller ; its leaflets are 

 also broader at the base and more contracted at their extremity, and the 

 farinose j^owder on their under-side is darker in colour than that of G. sul- 

 phur ea. On account of its slender habit and its light colour, the general 

 appearance of this form is very much that of a plant half-way between G. 

 sulphur ea and G. c. chrysophylla. According to Lowe, G. e. c. L' Herminieri 

 is a native of Guadeloupe, one of the largest of the Caribbee Islands. — 

 Lowe, Ferns British and Exotic, i., p. 24, t. 9. 



G. C. C. Martensii — Mar-tens'-i-i (Martens's), Link. 



The fronds of this handsome form are from 1ft. to IJft. long ; the colour 

 of the upper surface is a dull yellowish-green, whilst beneath they are 



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