ADIANTUM. 



331 



the Greek delta, A), and almost erect ; their pinna', (leaflets), Gin. to 9in. 

 long, are copiously furnished with almost stalkless pinnules (leafits) lin. long 

 and -Jin. broad, the lower margin of which is decurved and the upper one 

 straight and bluntly lobed : these pinnules are of a dark green colour on 

 both surfaces. The sori (spore masses) are straight, one to one and a-half 

 lines long, and are situated at the tips of the lobes of the upper edge, from 

 four to six to a pinnule.— Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 472. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 28. 



A. YeilUStum— ven-us'-tum (charming), Don. 



This very distinct species, of dwarf habit, which thrives best in the cool 

 greenhouse or frame, and is nearly hardy in sheltered places, remains rare 

 in cultivation. Although discovered many years ago by Dr. Hooker on the 

 Himalayas, where it grows at an elevation of 8000ft., it has never been 

 plentiful. According to Beddome, it is found in Simla, Nepaul, Meerut, 

 and Khasya, at an elevation of 6500ft. Its comparative scarcity is no doubt 

 due to the fact that there is another and a totally different plant which is 

 generally and extensively grown as A. venustum, and found in most 

 collections as well as in many trade catalogues under that name, but which is 

 only a dwarf form of A. cetHopicum, with slender, brittle, straw-coloured stalks 

 and roundish pinnules (leafits) of a very soft light green : this variety is 

 very proliferous, being provided with numerous slender, underground, creeping 

 rhizomes (prostrate stems), from which the young growth springs in profusion. 

 The true A. venustum also produces its elegant fronds from a creeping rhizome, 

 but in this latter organ the power of ramification is not much developed : 

 consequently the fronds are produced more sparingly than in the variety just 

 mentioned. The more rigid texture, the numerous small, scarcely-lobed 

 segments (leafits), and the few large sori (spore masses), clearly distinguish 

 the true species from the spurious form, as also from its nearest allies — 

 A, fragile, A. glaucophyllum, and A. monochlamys. Its fronds, 6in. to 12in. 

 long and 4in. to 8in. broad, are borne on wiry, ebony-black, shining stalks 

 6in. to 9in. long, slender but not brittle : they are deltoid (in form of the 

 Greek delta, A) and tri- or quadripinnate (three or four times divided to 

 the midrib). The numerous pinnules, about Jin. across, are of two 

 very different shapes, the fertile ones being wedge-shaped, with their nearly 



