TRICHOMANES. 



375 



to Sin. long and either naked or only slightly hairy, are 1ft. to l£ft. long, 

 6in. to 12in. broad, broadly egg-shaped, and three or four times divided nearly 

 to the midrib. The main rachis (stalk of the leafy portion) is very narrowly 

 winged throughout or above only. The lower leaflets, 4in. to 6in. long, are 

 divided into pinnules (leafits), which are again deeply cleft into rather distant, 

 long, narrow, sharply-toothed segments. The texture of the fronds is somewhat 

 leathery, their colour is dark green, and they are slightly hairy on their upper 

 surface. — Hooker, Species Filicum, L, p. 135, t. 40g ; Garden Ferns, t. 11. 

 Lowe, New and Bare Ferns, t. 65. 



T. proliferum — pro-lif-er-um (proliferous), Blume. 



A pretty, slender-growing species, usually easily recognisable by its 

 peculiar proliferous, branching habit, though the fronds are very variable in 

 outline. The fronds are produced from a wide-creeping, densely-interlaced 

 rhizome, and are borne on slender stalks lin. to 3in. long, each stalk supporting 

 one to three deeply-divided fronds, with narrow segments repeatedly branched 

 and divided nearly to the central rachis. — Hooker, Species Filicum, i., p. 118, 

 t. 39b. Beddome, Ferns of Southern India, t. 262. 



T. pyxidiferum — pyx-id-if'-er-um (box-bearing), Linnceus. 



A very variable species, native of the West Indies, Brazil, and Peru, 

 where it grows on trunks of Palms and other trees. It is a plant with wide- 

 creeping, rather slender rhizomes of a woolly nature, and narrow-oblong 

 fronds lin. to 6in. long and lin. to l^in. broad, borne on naked stalks lin. to 

 2in. long and winged above. The leaflets are divided nearly to the midrib, 

 and the leafits are again deeply cleft into narrow, transparent segments. 

 T. Vieillardi is synonymous with this species. — Hooker and Greville, Icones 

 Filicum, t. 206. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, iv., p. 81. Lowe, New 

 and Rare Ferns, p. 161. 



T. p. olivaceum — ol-i-va'-ce-um (olive-green), Kunze. 



In this variety the segments are broader and less divided than in the 

 type, and the wing of the rachis is somewhat crisped. Like the original 

 species, T. p. olivaceum thrives best on a piece of hard wood, and requires the 

 close, humid atmosphere of the warm house. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 81. 



