318 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



and proliferous at its extremity, and of from one to six pairs of similar lateral 

 ones, of a somewhat leathery texture. The spore masses, to fin. long, 



are disposed in oblique lines. — Hooker, Species Filicum, iv., p. 2. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, iii., p. 393. 



S. (Antigramme) plantagineum — An-tig-ram'-me ; plan-ta-gin'-e-um 

 (Plantago-like), Schrader. 

 A stove species, also known as S. Douglasii, native of Brazil. Its egg- 

 shaped fronds, Gin. to lOin. long and 3in. to oin. broad, are either rounded 

 or heart-shaped at the base, with the edge entire, and are borne on firm, 

 grey, naked stalks 6in. to 9in. long ; their texture is leathery and their veins 

 intercross each other within about Jin. of the edge. The spore masses are 

 confined to the free veins. — Hooker, Species Filicum, iv., p. 3. Hooker and 

 Greville, Icones Filicum, t. 150. 



S. (CamptOSOrus) rhizophyllum — Camp-tos-o'-rus ; rhi-zoph-yl'-lum 

 (having rooting fronds), Hooker. 

 This singular, greenhouse species, popularly known as the "Walking 

 Fern" or the "Walking Leaf" of America, seems to be a species long 

 known in England, as, according to Lowe, it had probably been introduced 

 as early as 1680. Eaton, in his excellent work, "Ferns of North America," 

 states that it occurs in many places in Western New England, but that it is 

 rare in the East ; also that it is common from Canada to Virginia, Alabama, 

 Wisconsin, and Kansas, where it is generally found in patches of considerable 

 extent, growing on mossy rocks, especially on those of a limestone nature, 

 which it prefers, and in the crevices of which the finest specimens are usually 

 found firmly rooted. Probably the earliest notice of the Walking Leaf is in 

 Ray's "Historia Plantarum," vol. ii., p. 1927, published in 1688. It is there 

 described as " Phyllitis parva saxatilis per summitates folii prolifera." Other 

 early accounts of this singular plant may be found in the " Species Plantarum " 

 of Linnajus and of WilldenOw, and in the second edition of Gronovius's " Flora 

 Virginica." 



The whole plant consists of a few fronds, growing from the end of 

 a very short yet creeping rootstock, and supported on slender, naked, chestnut- 

 brown stalks lin. to 4in. long. Their leafy portion, 4in. to 9in. long and 



