NEPHRODIUM. 



483 



N. (Sagenia) COadnatum — Sag-e'-m-a ; co-ad-na'-tum (united), Wallich. 



This pretty and particularly distinct, stove species is a native of the 

 East Indies and the Island of Ceylon. Its smooth, elongated, triangular 

 fronds, 2ft. to 3ft. long, produced from a stout, scaly, and somewhat creeping 

 rhizome (prostrate stem), are bipinnate (twice divided to the midrib), being- 

 furnished with leaflets the inferior leafits of which are longer than the superior 

 ones. The round and prominent sori (spore masses) are disposed close to 

 the margin of the lobes.^ — Lowe, Ferns British ajid Exotic., vi., t. 50. 



N. (Lastrea) COChleatum — Las'-tre-a ; coch-le-a'-tum (spirally twisted 

 like a snail-shell), Don. 

 This very curious Fern, native of the Neilgherrles, where it is found at 

 various elevations between 5000ft. and 6000ft., and of the Anamallay Hills 

 and other localities, where it is abundant at from 2500ft. to 4000ft. elevation, 

 has been described by some authors as a distinct species, whereas by others 

 it has been considered as only a form of N. Filix-mas. Under cultivation it 

 has retained its distinctive characters, which do not belong to the Filix-mas 

 group, and which consist in peculiarities of the fertile fronds. Beddome, 

 in his excellent work, says : " This very curious species is only to be 

 found in fructification in cold weather. The fertile fronds, when they first 

 appear in October or November, are quite contracted and covered with one 

 mass of fructification ; they die off again in January or February. I have 

 never detected any appearance of fructification on the broader sterile leaves, 

 which are growing all the year round, and it is quite an error, I think, to 

 suppose that the enlarged sorus is the efiect of a disease." From Beddome's 

 statement it will be seen that the fertile fronds are produced from a second 

 and distinct growth, and not until the autumn, whereas the barren ones are 

 produced all the year round ; also that while the fertile fronds are wholly 

 contracted, the barren ones, of much larger dimensions, often measure 3ft. 

 long. The latter are borne on stalks sometimes scaly, but often quite smooth, 

 and rising from a stout, erect stem. — Beddome, Ferns of Southern India, t. 115. 



N. (Lastrea) COncinnum — Las'-tre-a ; con-cin'-num (neat). Baler. 



A very distinct and pretty, stove species, whose habitat extends from 

 Mexico to Chili, Its oblong- spear -shaped fronds, produced from a wide- 



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