ALSOPHILA. 



351 



are disposed close to the midrib, one to each serrature (tooth) of the fertile 

 segments. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 37. 



A. COntaminans — con-ta'-niin-ans (contaminating), Wallich. 



This very robust-growing, stove species, known also as A. glauca, is 

 a native of Java and the Malay Islands, also of Sylhet and Cachar, near 

 Assam, in India. It forms a slender trunk or stem which is said to attain 

 in its native habitat from 20ft. to 50ft. in height, but which to our know- 

 ledge has never reached more than 5ft. or 6ft. in cultivation. The fronds, 

 8ft. to 12ft. long and bipinnate (twice divided to the midrib), are borne on 

 stipes (stalks) which, like the rachis (stalk of the leafy portion of the 

 frond), are of a purplish-brown colour, glossy and aculeate (prickly). The 

 primary pinnas (principal leaflets) are 2ft. or more in length and set rather 

 far apart ; they are furnished with sessile pinnules (stalkless leafits) 4in. to 

 5in. long, Jin. to lin. broad, somewhat sickle-shaped and deeply pinnatifid 

 (cut nearly to the midrib), of a glaucous (bluish-green) colour underneath, 

 and of a bright glossy green above. Every part of the frond is very brittle. 

 The base of these gigantic fronds — that is, their junction with the trunk or 

 stem — is of a peculiar purple colour, and the stalks, as well as the crown 

 itself from which they are produced, are densely clothed with long, white, 

 chaffy scales. The sori (spore masses) are disposed in the forking of a vein, 

 and nearer the midrib than the margin. — Hooker, Species Filicum, i., p. 52, 

 t. 18b. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 55. Beddome, Ferns 

 of British India, t. 85. 



A. Cooperi — CW-per-i (Cooper's), Hooker. 



A very handsome species, native of Queensland, in the way of the better- 

 known A. excelsa, but of smaller dimensions : it thrives equally well under 

 either stove or greenhouse treatment. The ample fronds are tripinnate 

 (three times divided to the midrib), and have their rachis (stalk of the leafy 

 portion) densely clothed at the base with large scales of a pale brown colour. 

 Their somewhat spear-shaped pinnas (leaflets) are ljft. to 2ft. long, and are 

 furnished with strap-shaped pinnules (leafits) 4im to 5in. long and fin. to 

 lin. broad, the segments (sub-divisions) of which, equally strap-shaped, are 

 if in. to ym* broad and bright green on both sides. The small sori (spore 

 masses) are sub-costular (disposed almost on the midrib or costa of the 



