618 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



the lower one, covered with long, silky hairs. The bright brown sori 

 (spore masses) are disposed on the margins. — Hooher, Species Filicum, v., 

 p. 118, t. 286b. 



N. Rawsoni — Raw'-son-i (Rawson's), Pappe. 



This greenhouse species, native of Namaqualand, where it was first 

 discovered by the Rev. Mr. Whitehead, is very distinct. Its fronds are 

 produced from a wide-creeping rhizome (prostrate stem) of a woody nature, 

 covered with linear (narrow) scales black in the centre and of a rasty-brown 

 colour towards the edge, and are borne on upright, naked, dark chestnut-brown 

 stalks Sin. to 4in. long, of a wiry nature ; they are 6in. to 9in. long, 

 Jin. broad, and simply pinnate. The leaflets, disposed in distant pairs, are 

 nearly as broad as long, and deeply cleft ; they are of a somewhat leathery 

 texture, pale green on their upper surface, which is naked, while their under- 

 side is densely matted with a bright rusty-brown, woolly substance. The 

 black and abundant sori (spore masses) are disposed along the edge, which 

 is not mUe^ed.—Hooker, Species Filicum, v., p. 110. 



Fig. 150. Frond of Nothochlaena sinuata 

 nat. size). 



N. sinuata — sin-u-a'-ta (wavy), Kaulfuss. 



A beautiful Fern, found growing naturally on rocks much exposed to the 

 sun, in Peru, Chili, and Mexico, where it is said to thrive on limestone, 

 trachyte, and conglomerate, in crevices of lava, and on walls, and is reported 

 as luxuriating in a vertical range from 2000ft. to 7000ft. above the sea, these 

 elevations subjecting it to widely -varying temperatures. N. sinuata is also 

 a native of Texas and ISTew Mexico, and is sometimes grown in a cool house ; 

 it makes, however, a much handsomer plant when cultivated in heat than 

 when kept in a cool house. Its real place is the stove, or, at least, the 



