ADIANTUM. 



303 



A. Moorei — Moor'-e-i (Moore's), Baler. 



This is a remarkably elegant, stove species, native of Peru. It is much 

 more generally known in gardens as A. amabile, under which name it was 

 described by Moore in the "Gardeners' Chronicle" of 1868, p. 1090, when 

 imported alive, and afterwards distributed by Messrs. J. Veitch and Sons, 

 who had received it from their collector, Pearce. This name was allowed 

 to remain unchallenged until 1873, and that sufficiently accounts for the 

 firm hold which it had taken of the general public. It was only in the 

 "Gardeners' Chronicle" of 1873, p. 811, that Mr. Baker observed that 

 the name amabile had already been applied in the genus by Liebmann to 

 a Mexican plant, fully described under that name in " Mexicos Bregner," 

 No. 113, published in 1849, a fact which had been totally overlooked by 

 Mr. Moore, to whom Mr. Baker then dedicated the new-comer. Liebmann's 

 A. amabile, according to his own specimens . in the Kew Herbarium, is not 

 thought specifically distinct from A. glaucoi^liyllum of Hooker or A. mexicanum 

 of Presl, but the one of which the following is a complete description is 

 totally distinct, though still known in commerce as A. amabile. Its handsome 

 fronds, which frequently attain 2ft. in length by 1ft. or more in breadth, are 

 borne on slender, black, shining stalks 6in. to 9in. long. They are deltoid 

 (in the form of the Greek delta, A), bi- or tripinnate (twice or three times 

 divided to the midrib), and are furnished with numerous pinnules (leafits) 

 borne on short footstalks and set somewhat far apart, which gives the fronds 

 a peculiarly light and feathery appearance, the more so that they are deeply 

 lobed on their outer margin, where the sori (spore masses), round or 

 nearly so, are situated at the extremity of the lobes. Mr. Moore, in his 

 description, says that the appearance of this plant suggests a relationship to 

 A. concinnum and A cuneatum through its pendulous habit and the shape 

 of its pinnules, and adds that " there is no doubt it is allied to both of them 

 and also to A. colpodes." He further says, " A peculiar and distinctive aspect 

 is given to A. amabile by the deep forked lobes of the pinnules generally, 

 and especially by that of the enlarged pinnule which terminates the primary 

 and frequently the secondary pinnae." Whatever the value of Moore's con- 

 jectures and suppositions as regards the origin of this Fern may be, it must 

 be admitted that it has proved very variable under cultivation, and that its 

 influence as a possible parent may safely be traced in the production of 



