CHAPTER XXII. 



ALSOPHILA, Brown. 

 (Al-soph'-il-a.) 



HIS genus, which in Hooker and Baker's " Synopsis Filicum " 

 is given as Genus 6 and forms the largest division of the 

 Cyathece, derives its name from alsos, a grove, and philos, 

 loving, in allusion to the habitats in which the species are 

 found in their natural state. It comprises several highly- 

 decorative and deservedly-popular Tree Ferns, and numerous species which, 

 though very handsome, are unfortunately known to us as herbarium specimens 

 only, besides other kinds which, no doubt on account of their gigantic 

 proportions, are seldom seen outside botanical gardens and a very few private 

 collections. 



The genus Alsophila is composed exclusively of exotic species from either 

 tropical or temperate quarters of the globe, the majority of them being 

 natives of Australia, New Zealand, South America, India, Ceylon, Malay, 

 and the West Indian Islands, and a few Tropical African. With the 

 exception of A. blechnoides, no other simply-pinnate species has, until now, 

 been recorded; as belonging to this genus, which comprises plants with fronds 

 bipinnate (twice divided to the midrib), and other and more numerous kinds 

 in which the fronds are three or four times pinnate. The distinguishing 

 characters of Alsophila reside in the globose (nearly spherical) form of their 

 sori (spore masses), which are dorsal (situated at the back of the fronds), 

 and disposed on a vein or in the forking of a vein. These sori mostly stand 



