616 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



A. (Euasplenium) montanum— Eu-as-ple'-m-um ; mon-ta'-num (found 

 on mountains), Willdenow. 

 Tins pretty, small-growing, greenhouse species is a native of North 

 America, where it is called the Mountain Spleenwort, and, according to 

 Eaton, is found in crevices of rocks in mountainous districts from Ulster 

 County, New York, southward along the Alleghanies, and west of them to 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. In these places it grows in dense tufts, the 

 rootstocks being so matted and fastened together by interlacing that a single 

 plant is not easily separated from the mass. The fronds, only 2in. to 3in. 

 long and decidedly triangular-ovate in shape, are borne on wiry, naked stalks 

 of similar length, polished and of a dark brown colour in their lower part, 

 but becoming green and herbaceous below the base of the leafy portion of 

 the fronds. The leaflets are of a leathery texture, gradually smaller and 

 simpler towards the extremity of the frond, the lowest ones being distinctly 

 stalked and divided to the midrib into spoon- shaped segments sharply toothed 

 round the outer edge. The rather short and copious sori (spore masses) are 

 placed near the midveins of the segments. This little Fern bears a certain 

 resemblance to the small varieties of the European A. Adiantum-nigrum ; while 

 very small forms of it, or plants growing in very exposed situations, are 

 somewhat like A. liuta-muraria, and the authors of the " Synopsis Filicum " 

 remark that it is intermediate between the two. — Hooker, Species Filicum, 

 hi., p. 177. Eaton, Ferns of North America, ii., t. 51. Nicholson, Dictionary 

 of Gardening, i., p. 132. 



A. (Euasplenium) mucronatum— Eu-as-ple'-m-um « mu-cro-na'-tum 

 (sharp-pointed), Presl. 

 This is a delicate and well-marked, stove species, native of Brazil. Its 

 fronds are 1ft. or more long, barely lin. broad, and borne on slender, naked, 

 polished stipites (stalks) lin. to 2in. long ; they are very flaccid in habit and 

 are furnished Avith numerous pairs of pinnge (leaflets) of parchment-like texture 

 and bright green in colour. The leaflets, which are ljin, long and |in. broad, 

 are stalkless, deflexed (thrown back), and deeply cut on both sides of the 

 midrib into mucronate (sharp-pointed) lobes the base of which is heart-shaped 

 on both sides. The sori (spore masses) are narrow-oblong and short. — Hooker, 

 Sjiecies Filicum, hi., p. 128. 



