A SPLENIUM. 



519 



known in the whole genus. Its fronds, fully 6ft. long and 2jft. broad, are 

 borne on brown, angular stalks 3ft. long and Jin. thick at the base, where 

 they are densely clothed with large, spear-shaped, brown scales ; they are 

 furnished with fifteen or sixteen pairs of pinnae (leaflets), the lowest of which 

 are quite l|ft. long by 2jin. broad, their extremity suddenly terminating 

 in a sharp point, and their edge being slightly undulated. All the portions 

 of the frond are of a thin yet sub-coriaceous (almost leathery) texture, and 

 the sori (spore masses) are disposed in slender lines reaching about two-thirds 

 of the way to the edge of the fertile pinna?. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, 

 p. 244. 



A. (DIplazium) chinense — Dip-laz'-i-uui ; chi-nen'-se (from China), 

 Baker. 



A greenhouse species, native of Shanghai, China, with fronds 1ft. to ljft. 

 long and nearly as broad, borne on slender, nearly naked stalks about lft. 

 long and of a greyish colour. These fronds are bip innate (twice divided to 

 the midrib) all the way through, except just at their summit, where 

 they are only pinnatifid (cut part of the way to the midrib). The pinna? 

 (leaflets), of a thin, papery texture and long-stalked, are Sin. to Sin. long 

 and 2^in. broad, and are divided into close, lanceolate pinnules (spear- 

 shaped leafits), which in their turn are subdivided into deeply-toothed, 

 oblong segments about l^in. long. The long and narrow sori (spore 

 masses) do not reach the edges of the pinnules. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, 

 p. 237. 



A. (Euasplenium) cicutarium — Eu-as-ple'-ni-urn ; cic-u-ta'-ri-um 

 (Cicuta-leaved), Swartz. 

 This very pretty, delicate-looking, stove Fern, common in the West 

 Indies, Mexico, and South America, is also, according to Eaton, a native of 

 Florida, where it is found in a wild state on calcareous rocks, near Lake 

 Panasofkee, in Sumter County, where it is known -under the name of the 

 Hemlock Spleenwort. Its lovely fronds, 6in. to 15in. long and 4in. to 6in. 

 broad, are borne on firm, smooth, greenish stipes (stalks) 4in. to Sin. long, 

 provided on each side with a narrow, paper-like wing, which is continued 

 all along the stalk of the leafy portion to the tips of the fronds. 



