192 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



a sub-coriaceous (leathery) texture, and which frequently attain from 3ft. to 

 4ft. in length and 1 Jft. in breadth, are tripinnate (three times pinnate), and 

 borne on stalks 1ft. or more in length. The lower barren pinna3 (leaflets) 

 usually measure from 6in. to 9in. in length and quite 4in. in breadth, and 

 are furnished with numerous lanceolate (spear-shaped) pinnules (leafits), 

 borne on short stalks, and whose segments or subdivisions are naked on both 

 surfaces. The segments of the fertile pinnules, barely -Jin. long, spread at 

 right angles, and bear three or four sessile (stalkless) balls of sori (clusters 

 of spore-cases). — Hooker, Species Filicum, v., p. 247. Nicholson, Dictionary of 

 Gardening, i., p. 19. 



Fig. 23. Acrostichum cervinum 



(Ja nat. size). 



A. cardiophyllum — car-di-oph-yF-lum (having heart-shaped fronds), 

 Hooker. 



A dwarf-growing, greenhouse species, native of the Andes of Quito, and 

 one of botanical interest only, as its barren fronds, including the stalks on 

 which they are borne, are seldom more than 2^in. long, and not more than 

 fin. broad. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 405. 



