378 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



A. Yillosa — vil-lo'rsa (covered with long, weak hair), Presl. 



This very beautiful, stove species, native of New Granada, Brazil, 

 Venezuela, and other parts of Tropical America, is of somewhat gigantic 

 dimensions, for its stem or trunk reaches 12ft. in height, and its handsome 

 fronds, 6ft. to 8ft. long, are borne on smooth stipes (stalks) 1ft. or more long, 

 densely clothed at their base with glossy scales of a rusty colour and lfin. 

 long. These fronds are bi- or tripinnate (twice or three times divided to the 

 midrib), broadly spear-shaped in outline, and furnished with oblong-spear- 

 shaped pinnules (leafits) of a leathery texture, smooth above, but covered on 

 both sides, when in a young state, with a woolly substance, which gradually 

 disappears as the fronds become mature. These pinnules are 2in. to Sin. 

 long, more or less deeply pinnatifid, sometimes divided almost to their midrib 

 into oblong, blunt, entire or coarsely -toothed lobes, on which the sori (spore 

 masses) occupy nearly the whole space between the midrib and the margin. 

 — Hooker, Species Filicum, I, p. 44. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 i., p. 56. 



A. Yitiensls— vi-ti-en'-sis (native of Viti). A form of A. lunulata. 



A. Wallace!— Wal-la'-ce-i (Wallace's), Mettenius. 



A stove species, native of Borneo, with large fronds tripinnatifid (three 

 times divided half-way to the midrib), and borne on stout stipes (stalks) of 

 a very downy nature. The pinnte (leaflets) are oblong-spear-shaped, 1ft. 

 to ljft. long, furnished with ligulate (strap-shaped) and distinctly- stalked 

 pinnules (leafits) ljin. to 2in. long and Jin. broad, cut down to a narrow 

 wing. The sub-divisions thus formed are closely set, equally strap -shaped, 

 blunt, slightly toothed on the margins, of a somewhat leathery texture, and 

 green on both sides, the lower one being very hairy, and furnished on the 

 ribs with a few scales, intermixed with the sori (spore masses). — Hooker, 

 Synopsis Filicum, p. 459. 



A. Wendlandii — Wend-land'-i-i (Wendland's), Mettenius. 



In this handsome species, native of Costa Rica, the fronds are tripinnatifid 

 (three times divided half-way to the midrib), and their rachis (stalk of the 

 leafy portion) is smooth and of a dull brown colour. The oblong-spear- 

 shaped pinnas (leaflets) are furnished with stalkless or short-stalked, ligulate 



