A SPLENIUM . 



571 



A. (Euasplenium) flabellifolium— Eu-as-ple'-ni-um ; fla-bel-lif-oF-i-um 

 (having fan-shaped leaflets), Cavanilles. 

 This extremely pretty, slender-growing, greenhouse species, which is 

 of an evergreen nature, native of Temperate Australia, Tasmania, and New 

 Zealand, is generally, though very wrongly, put aside by amateurs, its 

 decorative merits being usually underrated by most Fern- cultivators. Yet 

 it is well adapted for growing in baskets of small dimensions. It may 

 also be used for covering the surface of the soil in small Fern-cases, as 

 its fronds, of a brilliant green colour, borne on slender, flexuose (bending) 

 stalks of a green and chestnut-brown colour and 3in. to Gin. long, are 

 proliferous (bud-bearing) at their extremity, where they root very freely 

 when in immediate contact with the soil ; they are only once divided to the 



Fig, 101. Frond of Asplenia m flabellifolium 



(i nat. size). 



midrib (Fig. 101) and have on each side from ten to fifteen sessile, flabellate 

 pinna! (stalkless, fan- shaped leaflets) about Jin. each way, of a thin papery 

 texture, broadly lobed and sharply toothed on the edges, and with their base 

 cut away on the lower side. The abundant spore masses are disposed close 

 together, and when mature they become confluent (run into one another). 

 — Hooker, Species Filicum, hi., p. 146. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 i., p. 130. Lowe, Ferns British and Exotic, v., t. 1b. 



A. flabellifolium is a handsome plant when grown in a suspended basket ; 

 its delicate and curious -looking fronds hanging round the sides have 

 a very graceful, " weeping " appearance. In rustic cork baskets it is 



