472 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



a lobe, being confined to the upper third, and covered with a iirin, prominent 

 involucre. It is one of the most robust growers of the whole genus, its 

 handsome fronds, produced from a short, stout, upright trunk clothed all over 

 with light brown scales, forming a very effective, highly decorative plant of 

 a pleasing light green doXovcc.—Eooker^ Species Filicum, iv., p. 112, t. 248. 

 Beddome, Ferns of British India, t. 40. 



N. (Lastrea) arborescens— Las'-tre-a ; ar-bor-es'-cens (arborescent), Baker. 



A stove species, native of the Samoan Islands, with ample fronds, the 

 lower leaflets of which often measure IJft. long and Sin. broad. The pinnules 

 (leafits), distinctly stalked and spear-shaped, are Sin. to 4in. long, IJin. 

 broad, and cut down to the rachis, except at the point, into spear-shaped and 

 deeply-cleft segments of a soft, papery texture, with both surfaces naked, 

 and veinlets pinnate (once divided) in the lobes of the segments. The small 

 and abundant sori (spore masses) are disposed close to the midrib, and 

 covered with a naked, firm, very distinctly reniform (kidney-shaped) involucre 

 of a persistent nature. — Hooker, Synopsis FiUcum, p. 286. 



Fig. 115. Frond of Nephrodium Arbuscula 

 (i nat. size). 



N. (Eunephrodium) Arbuscula — Eu-neph-ro'-di -um : Ar-bus'-cul-a 



(little tree), Desvaux. 

 This handsome, stove species, of medium size and peculiarly distinctive 

 in character, is a native of Ceylon, Amboyna, the Philippine, Solomon, and 

 Mascarene Islands, the Neilgherries, and the Anamallay and Pulney Hills, 



