124 
Choice Ferns for Amateurs. 
ADIANTUM — continued, 
species. A place with a smaller amount of light than is 
required by other varieties of the same species, suits this 
plant admirably. 
A. Veitchianum. 
No doubt the most highly-coloured as well as the largest- 
foliaged of the known tinted Adiantums (with the exception 
of A, macrophylhmi). It is a stove species from the Andes of 
Peru. Its very attractive fronds, abundantly produced from 
a slender, underground rhizome, and borne on thin, wiry, 
black, shinmg stalks 4in. to Gin. long, are from Sin. to 12in. 
long, deltoid, and bipinnate in their lower half. They are 
particularly upright, and are furnished with numerous leafits 
about Jin. broad, semicircular on their upper margin, where 
they are also shallowly lobed. The round and small sori are 
disposed about eight along the upper margin of the fertile 
pinnules. The pinnules are of a remarkably bright red tint 
in their young state, and with age change to a soft pale 
green ; they are also of a thicker texture than most Adian- 
tums of the same section. 
A. venustum. 
This very rare, distinct, dwarf species, thrives best in 
the cool greenhouse or frame, and is nearly hardy in sheltered 
places. It should not be confused with a totally different 
plant that is extensively grown as A. vetiusfum, and found in 
most collections as well as in many trade catalogues under 
that name, but which is only a dwarf form of A. cethiopicum. 
The true A. venustum also produces its elegant fronds from a 
creeping rhizome, but in this latter organ the power of 
ramification is not much developed ; consequently the fronds 
are produced more sparingly than in the variety just men- 
tioned. The more rigid texture, the numerous small, scarcely- 
lobed segments, and the few large sori, clearly distinguish 
the true species from the spurious form, as also from its 
allies — A. glaucnphyllum and A. ynonochlamys. 
A. Victorise. 
In this pretty, dwarf Maidenhair, of garden origin, 
which has all the appearance of a ver;y dwarf form of 
A. Farleyense, the fronds, abundantly produced from a 
central J tufted crown, are crowded, bipinnate, and form 
close, low tufts, 4in. to 6in. high, of rich, bright green foliage. 
The rather large leafits are peculiarly crisped or undulated, 
deeply lobed around the upper and outer margins, and the 
oblong sori are disposed one on the tip of each lobe of the 
fertile pinnules. 
