248 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



well as the points of the pinnae (leaflets), terminating into a tassel of a size 

 proportionate to the vigour of the plant. — Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 iv., p. 484. 



A. ee. emarginatum — e-mar-gin-a'-tmn (notched at the end), Bory. 



This very handsome, greenhouse Fern is known in North America under 

 the name of Californian Maidenhair Fern. In Eaton's beautiful work, where 

 a splendid plate of it is produced, it is given as a form of A. Capillus- 

 Veneris, which species it certainly resembles very much by its growth and 

 by the nature of its thick, fleshy rhizome (underground stem), as also by 

 the texture of its fronds — " growing among rocks and in canons, both moist 

 and dry, from San Diego, California, to Oregon, not rare on the Coast Eanges, 

 but apparently unknown east of them." It is essentially distinct from the 

 species to which it is said to be related through the shape of its pinnules 

 (leafits), which are sometimes roundish, but more frequently broader than 

 long, so as to be semicircular, like those of A. lunulatum, or even slightly 

 reniform (kidney- shaped). They are commonly either truncate (abruptly 

 terminating) at the base, or broadly wedge-shaped, and are borne on slender 

 footstalks three to five lines long. In the sterile fronds the outer margin of 

 these pinnules is finely and sharply toothed ; but in the fertile fronds the 

 teeth are found only at the extreme sides of the pinnules, and the margin of 

 the lobes is recurved (bent back). The fronds themselves, borne on stipes 

 (stalks) 6in. to 9in. long, are about 1ft. in length, and nearly or quite half 

 as wide as they are long ; the largest ones are tripinnate (three times divided 

 to the rachis or midrib) in the lower part, bipinnate (twice divided to the 

 midrib) in the middle, and simply pinnate (divided only once to the midrib) 

 towards the apex, where the pinnae (leaflets), which are of a thin, papery 

 texture, clear green above and slightly paler beneath, overlap each other more 

 or less according to the vigour of the subjects. — Hooker, Species Filicum, 

 ii., p. 39, t. 75. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 26. Eaton, Ferns 

 of North America, i., t. 38. 



A. se. chilense — chil-en'-se (Chilian), Kaulfuss. 



The fronds of this greenhouse, Chilian form are about 1ft. long, including 

 the stalks on which they are borne ; they are triangular, tripinnate (three 



