260 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



banks with a soutliern aspect, and where the Marchantia (Liverwort) 

 flourishes." 



The barren and fertile fronds are totally dissimilar, the former 

 being only half the length of the latter, which usually measure from 2in. 

 to 4in. in length and lin. to IJin. in breadth. The barren ones are ovate 



(egg-shaped) or deltoid (in shape of 

 the Greek delta. A), divided into 

 cuneate-flabellate (wedge-fan-shaped) 

 segments, cut from the circumference 

 to the centre into linear (very narrow) 

 or oblong lobes of a thin, papery 

 texture, smooth on both surfaces, and 

 usually rest on the ground. The 

 fertile fronds, of erect habit, loosely 

 bi- or tripinnate (twice or three times 

 divided to the midrib), have nearly the 

 whole of their under- surface covered 

 with the sori (spore masses), which 

 are disposed one on each ultimate 

 segment of the veins. Both kinds of fronds are borne on tufted, slender, 

 glossy stalks lin, to 4in. long and of a chestnut-brown colour. They 

 are produced from a small crown, which completely dies away when 

 they fall ; at that time it is advisable to keep the surrounding soil 

 constantly moist, to induce the germination of the spores which may have 

 fallen around it. In this way G. leptophylla is generally kept from year 

 to year ; but it is safer to gather some spores specially for the ensuing 

 season's crop of young plants, which attain their full development in the 

 course of a few weeks. Fig. 65 is reduced from Col. Beddome's " Ferns of 

 Southern India," by kind permission of the author. — Hooker^ Species FiUcum, 

 v., p. 136. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 105. Beddome, Ferns 

 of Southern India, t. 270. Lowe, Ferns British and Exotic, i., t. 7. 



Although generally considered fairly hardy, the " Slender-leaved Gymno- 

 gramme " thrives best in the warm house, where one frequently finds seedlings 

 coming up spontaneously on the surface of the pots containing other plants. 

 A warm, shady, moist nook in the Fernery is therefore the most suitable 



f/g, 65. Gymnogramme leptophylla 

 a nat. size). 



