556 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



N. (Lastrea) patens — Las'-tre-a ; pat'-ens (spreading), Desvaux. 



This extremely ornamental, greenhouse species has a very extensive range 

 of habitat. In North America, where it is commonly called the " Spreading 

 Wood Fern," it is found from Florida to South Carolina, westward near the 

 Gulf of Mexico to Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, also in several canons 

 near Santa Barbara, California. In all these places, Eaton (vol. ii., p. 182) 

 states, it grows in low, shady woods ; he also says that it is a common 

 Fern throughout Tropical America, and that plants not distinguishable from 

 it are found in South Africa, and in the Islands of the Pacific Ocean. 

 N. patens is likewise found in Polynesia, Japan, Angola, &c. The fronds 

 vary very much in size, according to the habitat, the largest fronds of the 

 North American species seldom being more than 2ft. in length and lOin. in 

 breadth ; they are borne on roundish, pale green stalks, which also vary 

 from a few inches to sometimes 1ft. in length, and which emerge from an 

 oblique rootstock of a chaffy nature. The texture of the fronds is thin, but 

 firm. The leaflets, 4in. to 9in. long and |in. to fin. broad, are cut down 

 about three-quarters of the way to the rachis (stalk) into narrow-oblong, 

 nearly sickle-shaped lobes, both surfaces of which are pubescent with fine, 

 white, sharp -pointed hairs. The rather small though conspicuous sori (spore 

 masses) are disposed sometimes nearer the margin than the midrib, and 

 furnished with a roundish or kidney- shaped, persistent involucre, covered with 

 hairs like those of the frond. — Hooker, Species Filicum, iv., p. 95. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 442. Eaton, Ferns of North America, 

 ii., t. 70. 



There is a form known in gardens as iV. [Lastrea) p. superhum, for 

 which name we cannot find any authority. This variety, which is said to 

 have originated among some seedlings raised in the Gardens of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, at Chiswick, has its fronds more deeply cleft and 

 far surpasses in elegance the species from which it is issue. 



N. (Lastrea) patulum — Las'-tre-a ; pat'-ul-um (slightly spreading). Baker. 



A stove species, with a habitat ranging from the West Indies and Mexico 

 to Brazil and Ecuador. Its broadly -spear -shaped fronds, 1ft. to 2ft. long and 

 6in. to 12in. broad, are borne on tufted stalks 1ft. to IJft. long, scaly towards 

 the base. The spear-shaped leaflets, oin, to 6in. long and IJin. to 2in. broad. 



