84 
Choice Ferns for Amateurs. 
ACROSTlCHXJM—contmued. 
shaped, and cut down nearly or quite to the stalk below into 
close, nearly entire lobes; they lare quite smooth, of a dark 
gre-en colour, and have much the appearance of Aspidium 
aciileatum. The fertile fronds, also tripinnate, are of 
dimensions nearly equal to those of the barren ones, 
and erect in habit; but the leaflets are contracted, 
and their segments are linear, cylindrical, Jin. tO' ^in. 
long, with a. space between them, and wholly covered 
with sori. Fig. 49. 
Fig. 49. Acrostichum osmundaceum, an evergreen species, 
considered the handsomest of all the scandent members 
of the genus. 
A. paleaceum. 
This is identical with A. squamosum. 
A. peltatum. 
This exceedingly pretty, dwarf -growing, stove species, 
whose habitat extends from Mexico and the West Indies to 
Peru and Brazil, where it is found growing luxuriantly in 
decayed vegetable matter and on trunks of trees, is one of 
the most distinct, as also one of the most attractive, of the 
genus. As the specific name implies, its little barren 
