504 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



N. (Eunephrodium) distans — Eu-neph-iV-di-um ; dis'-tans (distant), 

 Hooher. 



A stove species, of medium dimensions, native of Madagascar. Its fronds, 

 produced from a strong, wide-creeping rhizome (prostrate stem), and borne 

 on firm, erect stalks 1ft. or more long, of a brownish colour, and slightly 

 hairy, are lift, to 2ft. long, Sin. to lOin. broad, and furnished with leaflets 

 Sin. to 4in. long, slightly lobed, and of a soft, papery texture. The spore 

 masses are disposed in contiguous rows, filling up nearly the whole space 

 between the midrib and the edge— Hooker, Species FiUcum, iv., p. 76. 



N. (Lastrea) Eatoni— Las'-tre-a ; Eat'-on-i (Eaton's), Baker. 



A greenhouse species, of medium &ize, native of the Kakeah and Loo- 

 Choo Islands, Eastern Asia. In habit as well as in cutting it resembles 

 N. dilatatum, from which it differs in its dense, fine, spreading, hair-hke 

 scales and in the slightly hairy nature of its rachises (stalks of the leafy 

 portion) and of the under-surface of its fronds, which are 1ft. to l^ft. long, 

 6in. to 9in. broad, and of a soft, papery texture. The small and copious 

 sori (spore masses) are covered by a glandularly- ciliated involucre —Hooker, 

 Synopsis Filicum, p. 276. 



N. (Lastrea) effusum— Las'-tre-a ; ef-fu'-sum (spreading), Baker. 



This very handsome, stove species, usually known in commerce under 

 the names of Polypodium effusum and P. divergens, is a native of Cuba, 

 Mexico, Brazil, and Peru. Its beautifully decompound (much-divided) fronds, 

 produced from a short- creeping, woody rhizome (prostrate stem), and borne 

 on stalks 2ft. long or more and slightly scaly below, attain fully 4ft. in 

 length by 2ft. in breadth, and are four or five times pinnatifid (cut partly 

 to the midrib). The lower leaflets, which are the longest, measure Ift. to 

 IJft. in length and are often 1ft. broad ; they are furnished with closely- set, 

 spear-shaped pinnules (leafits), divided again into spear-shaped, unequal-sided 

 segments, the lower ones of which are cut down to the midrib into oblong, 

 pinnatifid, bluntish lobes. The fronds are of a somewhat leathery texture 

 and of a pale green colour on both sides ; and the copious sori (spore 

 masses), scattered over their under-surface, are generally devoid of involucre. 

 — Hooker, Species Filicum, iv., p. 265. 



