A Dictionary of Choice Ferns. 
121 
ADIASTUM— continued, 
A, setulosum. 
A synonym of A. diaphanum, 
A. speciosum. 
Synonymous with A. digitatum. 
A. tenerum. 
This very fine, evergreen, stove species is admittedly 
a general favourite : its beautiful fronds, which lare ahun- 
dantly produced from a slowly-creeping, underground 
rhizome, about las thick as a goose-quill, and covered with 
dark brown hairs and dented scales of the same colour, 
grow from 3ft. to 4ft. in length, nearly one-third of which 
IS naked. These fronds, of a very elegant character, are 
three or four times divided to the midrib, and 1ft. to l^ft. 
broad. The ebeneous-black and glossy character of the stalks 
extends to the footstalks of the numerous lea fits, and this 
produces a great and pleasing contrast to the brilliant green 
of the latter. These leafit® are all borne on short foot- 
stalks, from which they readily fall when dry : their upper 
edge is rounded, broadly, and often also deeply lobed; the 
barren lobes are finely dented, and the fertile ones are 
entire. The sori are kidney-shaped, and disposd from ten 
to thirteen in roundish or transversely-oblong patches in 
the lobes of the upper margin of each fertile pinnule. A 
grand exhibition species. It is the Brittle Fern of North 
America, and is found also in the West Indies, Mexico, and 
South America. 
A. t. Farleyense. 
The correct name of the plant usually called A. Farleyense, 
A. tetraphyllum. 
A handsome, but very variable, stove species, also 
known under the name of A. prionophyllum. It is a 
native of Tropical America, where it is found from Mexico 
and the West Indies southward to Brazil. Its mi{\ssive yet 
elegant fronds, borne on strong, upright, downy stalks 
rising from a slowly-creeping, underground rhizome, are 
of a very peculiar shape. They consist of a long terminal 
leaflet, 6in. to 9in. long and lin. to l^in. broad, and of 
numerous (spreading lateral ones nearly as large on both 
sides ; consequently, the leafy portion of the frond is fre- 
quently l^ft. long and almost as much broad. The leafits 
are of a leathery texture, ^in. to fin. broad and Jin. deep, 
sub-dimidiate, their lower line straight or somewhat de- 
