496 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



to point out the marked differences existiDg in the two plants under the 

 respective names which, for once differing from the authors of " Synopsis 

 FiHcum," we intend retaining in this work. 



The caudex or rootstock of N. dUatatum is not of a 

 creeping character ; it is large, erect, and almost entitled 

 to be described as arborescent, for miniature stems or 

 trunks Ift, to IJft. high are fre- 

 quently met with in a wild state. 

 The rootstock of N. spinulosum, 

 on the contrary, is of a decidedly 

 creeping nature ; and, although 

 spreading slowly, yet in old plants 

 it reaches to a certain distance 

 and sends up numerous crowns or 

 tufts of fronds. In N. dUatatum 

 the crown is usually solitary, 

 though sometimes two or three may 

 be found growing so close together 

 as to form one solid mass ; when 

 fully developed this is of the size 

 of a man's fist and densely covered 

 with large scales of a bright, dark 

 brown colour, almost triangular and 

 of a deciduous nature, and the 

 fronds produced from the same are 

 disposed in a symmetrical, circular 

 cluster bearing some resemblance to 

 the capital of a Corinthian column. 

 The fronds are more decompound 

 (finely divided) than those of N. 

 sjjimdosum, which are produced 

 from small, whitish crowns and 

 disposed in irregular tufts. In habit and colour they are also diftereAt, for, 

 while in N. dUatatum the entire fronds, which frequently attain 6ft. in length 

 and IJft, in breadth, are either upright or spreading and of a dark green 



Fig. 120. Frond and Fertile Pinna of Nepiirodium dUatatum 



(Frond, much reduced ; Pinna, J nat. size). 



