70 
BEAUTIFUL FERNS. 
ovate in shape, and, in large fronds, pinnate with bipinnatifid 
lanceolate acute pinnae. The middle primary division is broadly 
triangular, and has its lower pinnae ample and bipinnatifid, and 
the successive ones gradually smaller and less compound. The 
ultimate divisions are oblong or oblong - ovate, and commonly 
incised-toothed along the sides and at the ends. Milde notices 
that the basal pinnae of the lowest primary segments are on 
the upper side of the secondary rachis (miadronious), but that 
towards the apex of the frond the lowest pinnae are on the 
lower side (catadromotts), and that this arrangement prevails 
also in the divisions of the secondary segments. Var. gracile 
is nothing but a small form of the usual type. Var. cicutarium 
I have not seen : Milde gives Hayti and New Granada as the 
regions where it occurs. Var. Mexicammi has often a long 
stalk to the panicle, and the other differences are not any too 
constant. 
The sterile segment is much thinner than in B. ternatu7n, 
and the epidermis is composed of cellules with sinuous mar- 
gins. The fronds wither at the first frost. 
