242 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



profusely covered with a rich yellow powder. They are bipiniiate (twice 

 divided to the midrib) and furnished with spear-shaped leaflets and roundish 

 pinnules (leafits), the segments of which are conspicuously toothed. The 

 colour of the stalks is a shining brownish-red. We have it on the authority 

 of E. J. Lowe that Link considered this Fern as a hybrid variety between 

 (}. calomelanos and the variety G. c. chrysophylla ; also, that under similar 

 culti^^ation G. c. clirysopliylla is less in size, more triangular in form, has the 



pinnules more expanded, and is 

 not so sharply pointed at the 

 extremities of the leaflets. — Loioe^ 

 Ferns British and Exotic, i., t. 1. 



G. c. c. Massoni — Mas-so'-ni 

 (Masson's), ZzV?!, 

 This variety is very remark- 

 able on account of the length of 

 its fronds, which are spear-shaped, 

 handsomely golden beneath, some- 

 what loose, and of a pendulous 

 habit, making it an excellent plant 

 for large hanging baskets. 



G. c. c. Parsonsii — Par-son'- 



si-i (Parsons's), Moore. 

 A beautifully -crested form, of 

 comparatively dwarf dimensions, 

 with fronds seldom exceeding 1ft. in length, and covered on their under- 

 side with a beautiful dark yellow powder. They are of a very upright 

 habit, their extremity being formed into a broad but flnely-divided tassel, 

 while each leaflet terminates in a crest, becoming smaller as they reach 

 the base of the fronds. This variety is very variable in its mode of 

 fructification, some plants producing fronds with more or less flattened 

 crests. It is very liable to damping-oft' through excessive or accumulation 

 of moisture in the crests of the fronds during the winter, when it must 

 be kept in a particularly dry place, and as close to the light as possible. 



Fi^, 56. Gymnogramnie calomelanos peruviana 

 (greatly reduced). 



