488 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



their greatest size, but it will also bear continued exposure to sunshine, and 

 when growing thus it is very dwarf and of a yellowish colour. It is also 

 very useful for pot culture, as it thrives under glass in the cool-house, even 

 better than it does in the outdoor Fernery. The soil in which this Fern 

 grows most luxuriantly is a mixture of leaf mould, sandy loam, lime rubbish, 

 and fibrous peat in about equal parts. Propagation may be effected by 

 means of seedlings, spores being ripe about September ; or by the divisions 

 of the crowns in early spring, during March and April. 



This useful species has, in its wild state, produced several variations, the 

 most distinct of which are the following : 



A. A.-n. acutum — ac-u'-tum (acute), Bory. 



This is such a distinct form that Mr. E. J. Lowe, who in 1860 found 

 it in great abundance in Spain, especially near Santander, Las Caldas, and at 

 Fuente del Mar, where a long bank under a hedge was completely clothed 

 with it, suggests that it may even be a distinct species. Its fronds, of very 

 fine texture, are from 6in. to 18in. long and 3in. to Sin. broad at the base ; 

 they are borne on stipes (stalks) sometimes 9in. long, and are of a more 

 graceful habit than those of the typical plant, from which this variety differs 

 principally through its being more subdivided, as also through its thinner 

 and more papery texture, and through the presence throughout the frond 

 of linear-acute (narrow and pointed), erect segments and teeth. The sori 

 (spore masses) are linear (very narrow), and are situated near the centre of 

 the pinnules (leafits). The same plant has also been found in a wild state 

 by Dr. Allchin and others at the Turk Waterfall, Killarney ; at the foot of 

 Cromaglaun, and Glouin Caragh, Inveragh ; at Cahir Conree, near Tralee, 

 and in other parts of Ireland, as well as in Jersey, and at Combe Royal, 

 in South Devon. — Lowe, Our Native Ferns, ii., p. 173, fig. 514. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 128. 



A. A.-n. decompositum — de-com-pos'-it-um (decompound or many 

 times divided), Moore. 

 This variety, originally found at Manaton, in Devonshire, differs from 

 A. A.-n. acutum in having the segments (sub -divisions) of the pinnules 

 (leafits) less pointed and less rigid, and in having its fronds nearly quadri- 



