NEPHRODIUM. 



503 



N. (Lastrea) dissectum — Las'-tre-a ; dis-sec'-tum (dissected), Desvaux. 



This very handsome, strong-growing, stove species, which is better 

 known as iV". memhranifolium, is a widely-spread plant, being found in New 

 Caledonia, Ceylon, Madagascar, and the Philippine Islands, and also, according 

 to Beddome, on the Anamallays and Neilgherries, in the Sisparah and Carcoor 

 Ghats. Its ample fronds, in shape of the Greek delta. A, and borne on rather 

 slender stalks 1ft. or more long, clothed towards the base with narrow scales 

 of a dark brown colour, are from 1ft. to 5ft. long and 1ft. to 3ft. broad. The 



Fi^. 123. Lower Leaflet of Nephrodium dissectum 

 (I nat. size). 



lower leaflets, which sometimes are simply pinnatifid (cut half-way down to 

 the midrib), with broad, blunt lobes (Fig. 122), and sometimes 1ft. long 

 and pinnate (Fig. 123, reduced from Col. Beddome's " Ferns of Southern 

 India," by the kind permission of the author), with similarly pinnatifid 

 pinnules (leafits), are of a soft, papery texture and of a bright green colour. 

 The sori (spore masses), copious and generally disposed at a little distance 

 from the edge of the pinnules, are covered by a flat involucre. — Hooker, 

 Species Fllicum, iv., p. 131. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 440. 



