ASPLENIUM. 



499 



dimensions, are equally tufted and of a blackish colour. The sori (spore 

 masses), also, are short and parallel with the lower edge of the pinnae 

 (leaflets). — Hooker, Species Filicum, iii., p. 142, t. 189. 



A. (Diplazium) Arnottii — Dip-laz'-I-um ; Ar-nott'-i-i (Arnott's), Baker. 



A stove species, of gigantic dimensions, native of the Sandwich Islands, 

 where it is said to be very abundant. Its fronds, borne on smooth, angular 

 stalks of a brownish colour, are from 3ft. to 4ft. long ; their lower pinna? 

 (leaflets), 9in. to 12in. long and 4in. to Bin. broad, are furnished with 

 pinnules (leafits) Sin. to 4in. long, lin. or more broad, and of a soft, papery 

 texture. The leafits are in their turn cut down to a distinctly- winged stalk 

 into blunt, oblong lobes £in. deep and Jin. broad, with a space between 

 them. The sori (spore masses), when mature, fill up nearly the whole 

 surface of the lobes. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 240. Nicholson, Dictionary 

 of Gardening, i., p. 128. 



A. (Athyrium) aspidioides— Ath-yr'-I-um ; as-pid-i-o-i'-des (Aspidium- 

 like), Schlechtendal. 

 This very variable, greenhouse species possesses an extensive range of 

 habitat, for it is found in the Sandwich Islands and in Madagascar, in the 

 Cape Colony and at Fernando Po ; while Beddome tells us that on the 

 Neilgherries, and especially about Otocamund, it is very abundant, principally 

 along banks of streams and by roadsides. In the typical plant the fronds, 

 borne on tufted, slender, straw-coloured stalks, naked except at the base, are 

 from 1ft. to 2ft. long and from Sin. to 12in. broad ; they are tripinnatifid 

 (cut three times half-way down to the stalk) ; their lower pinnae (leaflets), 

 spear-shaped, of a very soft, papery texture, and from 6in. to 9in. long, are 

 in their turn divided into spear-shaped pinnules (leafits) cut down below 

 nearly to the stalk into pinnatifid segments about Jm. broad. The colour at 

 the leafy portion of the fronds is dark green, and both surfaces are naked. 

 The copious sori (spore masses) are of oblong form and the lower ones are 

 curved. In the variety scandicinum of Presl, the fronds are larger and more 

 finely cut, and their deeply -pinnatifid segments look like so many linear 

 (long and narrow) divisions, the whole breadth of which the spore masses 

 sometimes occupy ; whereas Beddome says that a dwarf form with incurved 



