A Dictionary of Choice Ferns. 
269 
NKPHROLKPIS— continued. 
are from l^ft. to 2ft. long, and are furnish-ed witli leaflets 
from the base. This variety thrives equally well in the 
intermediate house or in the stove, and reproduces itself 
freely from spores. 
N. c. pectinata. 
Undoubtedly this may be regarded as one of the gems 
of the genus. It® close, compact, yet graceful habit, 
coupled with the greyish colour of its comparatively short 
and slender fronds, borne on perfectly naked stalks, make it 
unique. Either grown in a pot or in a basket of small 
dimensions, or planted in a perpendicular wall, it is most 
useful. Unlike most of the other species and varieties, it 
produces fine bushy plants in small pots suitable for table 
decoration, and it is not uncommon to find in a lOin. basket 
as many as 150 gracefully pendulous, slender fronds seldom 
exceeding l^ft. in length. The species is one of those most 
readily propagated from spores. 
N. davallioides. 
This magnificent, stove species, is a native of the 
Malayan Archipelago, the East Indies, and Java. Its 
vigorous constitution and the graceful habit of its arching 
fronds, 2ft. to 3ft. long, Ift. broad, and borne on stalks 1ft. 
or more long, make it a plant of no ordinary merit. These 
fronds are symmetrically disposed in a fibrous crown, which 
sends forth on all sides stolons of a wiry nature and of 
great length ; these delight in creeping on the surface of the 
ground or in some very loose miaterial, such as partly- 
decayed moss, sending up here and there tufts of new 
fronds. The stalks on which the fronds are borne are stout, 
round, channelled in front, and scaly at the base only. The 
leaflets, 4in. to 6in. long and ^in. to lin. broad, are of two 
distinct forms, the lower ones being barren, opposite, some- 
what spear-shaped, and toothed at the edges. The upper 
portion only of the fully-developed fronds is fertile, differing 
in that respect, as well as in general appearance, from all 
other known species. The fertile leaflets, which are also 
opposite, are longer and narrower than the barren ones ; 
their lobes are much deeper, and each of these is terminated 
by a single sorus. This is a Fern which should be in every 
collection ; for covering walls of large dimensions or for 
planting on dead Tree Ferns it has no equals ; a good speci- 
men of it makes a particularly attractive exhibition plant, 
as the barren and fertile portions of its fronds are as dis- 
tinct as those of the better-known Asple^iium hiforme. The 
spore masses are covered by a kidney-shaped involucre. 
