532 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



significant synonyms are very applicable to a species whose barren and 

 fertile fronds or portions of fronds are so entirely different that, unless seen 

 growing upon the plant, it is difficult to reconcile the two as belonging to 

 the same subject, the one having the pinnules (leafits) narrow and thread- 

 like, while in the other they are broad and not unlike the leaf of a celery- 

 plant on a small scale (Fig. 89). The gracefully-arching fronds of this 

 noble-growing kind, 2ft. to 3ft. long and quite 1ft. broad, are borne on firm 

 yet flexible stalks 6in. to 12in. long, green above and blackish below ; they 

 are produced very abundantly from a fleshy, slowly-creeping rhizome, which 

 invariably keeps on the surface of the ground, are of a shining bright green 

 colour, and bipinnate (twice divided to the midrib). The lower leaflets, 

 somewhat egg-shaped, 6in. to 8in. long and 2in. broad, are furnished with 

 pinnules which, when barren, are lin. or more long and fully Jin. broad, 

 bluntly toothed, and having the base on the lower side obliquely truncate. 

 Both barren and fertile fronds are of the same size, but the latter are cut 

 down to the rachis into narrow, simple or forked segments. A. dimorphum 

 is a remarkably variable species, having its fronds sometimes all fertile, 

 sometimes all barren, while it is not at all unusual to find that the lower 

 portion of a frond is barren while the upper part of it is fertile. It is 

 a plant of exceptionally good constitution and very proliferous, producing on 

 the upper surface of its fronds numerous small bulbils, by which means it is 

 usually propagated. The sori (spore masses), single on each pinnule, are 

 situated on the inner edge and very long, occupying generally three-fourths 

 of the length of the pinnule. — Hooker, Species Filicum, iii., p. 213. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, L, p. 129. Lowe, Ferns British and Exotic, 

 v., t. 17. 



A. diplazioides — dlp-laz-i-o-i'-des (Diplazium-like). Synonymous with 

 A. Amottii. 



A. (Euasplenium) divaricatum — Eu-as-ple'-ni-um ; di-va-ric-a'-tum 

 (divaricate, branching off at an obtuse angle), Kunze. 

 A stove species, of small dimensions, native of Chili and Peru, with 

 fronds seldom more than 6in. long, 2in. broad, and borne on very short 

 stalks ; they are furnished with numerous closely-set, almost overlapping 

 pinna3 (leaflets), which are in their turn cut into numerous pinnules (leafits) 



