TRICHOMANES. 



377 



18in. in length ; according to Colonel Hall, a similar form exists in the forest 

 of Esmeraldas, El Equador. In the Azores, Dr. Hochstetter and Mr. II . C. 

 Watson discovered it at an elevation of from 2000ft. to 3000ft. above the 

 level of the sea. It is also a native of Spain, TenerifFe, the Canary Isles, 

 Madeira, Mexico, New Granada, Venezuela, Brazil, the Sandwich Islands ; and 

 Beddome, in his ' Ferns of British India,' gives an illustration (t. 181) of the 

 plant as found on the Khasya Hills." Eaton also states, in his " Ferns of 

 North America," that it is found in Alabama, and gives an illustration of it. 



The fronds of T. radicans (see Coloured Plate) are produced from a wide- 

 creeping rhizome of a hairy nature, which has a great predilection for stone, 

 clinging thereto with great tenacity. They are borne on stalks 2in. to 6 in. 

 long, naked or nearly so, and sometimes winged in their upper part. The 

 leafy portion of the frond varies from 4in. to 12in. 'in length and 2in. to 6in. 

 in breadth ; it is three times deeply cleft nearly to the rachis, which is very 

 narrowly winged. The leafits are again deeply cleft into deeply-toothed 

 segments, and their texture, though transparent, is particularly firm. — Hooker, 

 British Ferns, t. 42. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, iv., p. 81. Lowe, 

 Our Native Ferns, ii., t. 71 ; Ferns British and Exotic, viii., t. 9a. Beddome, 

 Ferns of British India, t. 181. Moore, Nature -printed British Ferns, t. 48. 



T. radicans is a very variable species, and some of its numerous forms 

 are very beautiful. The following are among the most distinct : 



T. r. alabamense — al-ab-a-men'-se (native of Alabama). 



For this name, under which a remarkably pretty form is grown in this 

 country, we cannot find any authority. But Eaton, in his " Ferns of North 

 America" (p. 180), gives a description of the plant, which he also illustrates 

 (t. 24, fig. 1), under the name of T. radicans, or " Alabama Bristle Fern," 

 and which corresponds exactly with the plant known in gardens as 

 T. alabamense. He adds that it grows on shaded or overhanging sandstone 

 cliffs constantly moistened by spray, and that it was first discovered by the 

 Hon. T. M. Peters, in July, 1852, in Winston County, Alabama, and eventually 

 in many places in North America. 



For the history as well as for the description of his T. radicans, Eaton 

 refers to Williamson, who, in his "Ferns of Kentucky" (p. 123), states: 

 " I discovered it growing in more than a dozen localities under the Green 



