NEPHRODIUM. 



677 



Waterdown Forest, near Tunbridge Wells, and in various other places where 

 it is now extinct. It is found in Wales, in a moist dell at the foot of 

 Snowdon, near Llanberis, and near Beaumaris, in Anglesey. 



The fronds of N. Thelypteris, which rise from a very slender, wide- 

 creeping rootstock or rhizome, nearly black and almost devoid of chaffy 

 scales, keeping just beneath the surface of the ground, are borne on round, 

 naked stalks about Ift. long, of a slender nature, and scattered at long 

 intervals along the rootstock. They are 1ft. to 2ft. long, 4in. to 6in. broad, 

 and furnished with spreading leaflets 2in. to Sin. long and Jin. broad, cut 

 down very nearly to the midrib into sj)reading, narrow-oblong lobes, which 

 are broader in the barren than in the fertile fronds. The lower two or three 

 pairs of lobes are usually a little shorter than those above them, and fronds 

 are occasionally found in which they are conspicuously reduced. Although 

 the surface of the fronds appears smooth, careful examination reveals a 

 slight j)ubescence along the midrib and veins, especially on the under- surface ; 

 they are of a very thin, papery texture and of a delightful green colour. 

 The sori (spore masses) are distinctly disposed in rows near the recurved 

 edge. — Hooker, Species Filicum, iv., p. 88 ; British Ferns, t. 13. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 444, Eaton, Ferns of North America, i., 

 t. 30. Beddome, Ferns of British India, t. 254. Correvon, Les Fougeres 

 rustiques, p. 132. 



This interesting Fern would flourish luxuriantly in the company of 

 Osmundas, in a low, boggy situation, a constantly damp soil, of a peaty or 

 open nature, being indispensable to its welfare. 



N. (Lastrea) Thwaitesii— Las'-tre-a ; Thwaites'-i-i (Thwaites'), Baker. 



A stove species, native of Ceylon, greatly resembling N. deparioides in 

 general outline, but differing from that species through its small spore masses 

 being quite marginal instead of terminal in the teeth of the lobes of its fronds. 

 — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 277. Beddome, Ferns of Southern India, t. 247. 



N. (Lastrea) tomentosum — Las'-tre-a ; to-men-to'-sum (downy), Desvaux. 



This stove species, of medium dimensions, is of little decorative value. 

 It is a native of Mauritius, Bourbon, and Tristan d'Acunha. — Hooker, Species 

 Filicum, iv., p. 95, 



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