ANTROPHYUM. 



403 



objects, and are especially valuable for growing in comparatively dark places. 

 All are of small, or at the most of medium dimensions, and not rapid 

 growers by any means, but their fronds possess very lasting qualities, and 

 consequently the plants are at all times well furnished with foliage. Their 

 propagation may be effected by means of the spores, which are produced in 

 abundance ; but this being a very slow process, they are usually increased 

 by the division of their crowns, an operation which proves most satisfactory 

 when done in March or April. 



Principal Species and Varieties. 



A. Boryanum — Bo-ry-a'-nmn (Bory's), Kaulfuss. 



A very distinct, stove species, also known as A. obtusum, native of the 

 Mauritius, Bourbon, and Johanna Islands. The stout, compressed stipes 

 (stalks), lin. to 4in. long, gradually merge into the fronds, which are Gin. to 

 12in. long, 2in. to 4in. broad, and show no distinct midrib. These fronds 

 are broadest half or one-third of the way down, their edge is entire, and 

 while their extremity is sometimes pointed and sometimes blunt, their lower 

 part is very gradually narrowed. The areolae (distinctly marked-out spaces 

 on their surface) are vertical, Jin. long, and Jin. broad, and the slender sori 

 (spore masses) are often united. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 394. 



A. Brookei — Broo'-ke-i (Brooke's). Synonymous with A. subfalcatum. 



A. callaefolium — cal-he-fol'-i-um (Calla-leaved). This is synonymous with 

 A. Cumingii. 



A. cayennense — cay-en-nen/-se (from Cayenne), Kaulfuss. 



A stove species, native of G-uiana and the Amazon Valley, and readily 

 distinguished from most other species through the distinct and prominent 

 midrib, which extends from the base to the extremity of its rather firm fronds. 

 These, borne on stipes (stalks) lin. to 4in. long, are Gin. to 9in. long, lin. 

 to ljin. broad, oblong-spear-shaped, being narrowed at both ends, with their 

 edge entire and thickened. The areola? are oblique, half as broad as long, and 

 the nearly superficial sori (spore masses) are often forked. — Hooker, Species 

 Filicum, v., p. 172. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 89. 



