NEPHRODIUM. 



513 



those next to tlie rachis (stalk) being so closely set as to frequently quite 

 conceal it. This reproduces itself true from spores. — Lowe, Our Native Ferns, 

 i., fig. 197. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 440. 



N. F.-m. cristatum — cris-ta'-tum (crested), Moore. 



A truly beautiful variety, originally found at Charleston, near St. Austell, 

 in Cornwall, and also near Ilfracombe, in Devonshire. It is of such a striking 

 and decorative character that Lowe, in his excellent work, remarks that "it is 

 the most ornamental and useful of British Ferns, that no Fernery can be 

 complete without it, and that it is impossible to grow too many plants of it, 

 a mass of cristatum being a picture to look upon." Its fronds, which are 

 narrow-spear-shaped in outline and symmetrical in form, are of large size, 

 being upwards of 3ft. in length and about Ift. broad in the middle ; 

 their main and secondary stalks are densely covered with large scales of 

 a light brown colour. They gracefully bend apparently from the weight of 

 their very large, many times short-branched, and crispy terminal tuft or crest, 

 the pinnte (leaflets) ending in a similar though smaller, many-branched crest, 

 thus fringing the outline of the frond, which is of a dark green colour, with 

 a regular border of crispy and rather spreading crests. Whether grown in 

 pots or planted out in the hardy Fernery, this variety produces a noble mass 

 of fronds ; it also possesses the advantage of reproducing itself true from 

 spores, though seedlings have occasionally been found differing sufficiently 

 from the parent to receive distinctive names. — Lowe, Our Native Ferns, i., 

 t. 27. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 440. 



N. F.-m. C. angustatum — an-gus-ta'-tum (narrow), Moore. 



This elegant variety, raised by Mr. R. Sim, of Foot's Cray, from spores 

 of cristatum, bears very narrow fronds consisting of two almost parallel rows 

 of crispy, compact tassels, diminishing in size as the fronds suddenly taper 

 towards the large terminal crest, the weight of which imparts a gracefully - 

 arching habit. The fronds are remarkably narrow, being 1ft. to IJft. in 

 length and seldom more than l|^in. in breadth, and their stalks are densely 

 covered with large, reddish-brown scales ; they are simply pinnate (only once 

 divided to the midrib), the leafits being all confluent and very narrow, so 

 that the edges of the leaflets are merely slightly lobed, the whole frond 



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