580 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



5in. broad, and often proliferous (bulbil-bearing) at their extremity • they are 

 furnished with from six to ten pairs of ascending, spear-shaped leaflets of 

 a thin but firm texture, with both surfaces of a bright green colour, the 

 central ones Sin. to 3in. long and Jin. broad, toothed, square on the upper 

 side and wedge-shaped on their lower side at the base. The sori (spore 

 masses), |in. to Jin. long, are disposed in five or six pairs of parallel rows 

 nearer the midrib than the edge. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 485. 



A. (Euasplenium) Gautieri— Eu-as-ple'-m-mn ; Gau-ti-e'-ri (Gautier's), 

 Hooker. 



This stove species, native of the Island of Mssobe, near Madagascar, is 

 the smallest and most delicate of the group composed of plants with entire 

 (undivided) fronds. Its fronds are oblong-spear-shaped, only about Sin. long 

 and lin. broad in their widest part, and have their base suddenly narrowed to 

 a wing which narrows very gradually into the stalk ; the base is sometimes 

 furnished with a pair of small, oblong, blunt lobes. The small and distant 

 sori (spore masses) do not reach either the edge or the midrib. — Hooker, 

 Species Filicum, hi., p. 88, t. 184. 



A. (Euasplenium) gemmiferum— Eu-as-ple'-ni-um ; gem-mif'-er-um 

 (provided with leaf-buds), Schrader. 

 A stove species, of medium size, native of Cape Colony, Bourbon, 

 Mauritius, and Madagascar, and closely resembling the popular A. obtusatum 

 in general appearance, but with fronds of a more papery texture and generally 

 proliferous (bulbil-bearing) at their extremity. The copious sori (spore 

 masses) are broad and fall short of both edge and midrib. — Hooker, Species 

 Filicum, hi., p. 100. 



A. (Euasplenium) germanicum— Eu-as-ple'-m-um ; ger-ma'-nic-um 

 (German), Weiss. 



This species, of small dimensions, which approaches nearest the better- 

 known Wall Eue {A. Ruta-muraria) and is even considered by some authors 

 as merely a variety of that common British Fern, is a native of Hungary, 

 Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, and other parts of the Continent, where, 

 however, it is always found in comparatively small quantities. It was not 



