lOO 
BEAUTIFUL FERNS. 
that of the species last described. It sometimes rises a little 
above the surface of the ground, forming a short trunk. 
The stalks seem to vary a good deal in length, being 
sometimes only two or three inches long, and at other times 
over a foot. They are clustered at the growing end of the 
root-stock, and their bases, which remain long after the rest 
has perished, are consolidated with the root-stock. The stalks 
are always more or less chaffy, the chaff mainly confined to 
the lowest portion in some plants, and in others following the 
stalk and the rachis to the apex of the frond. The largest 
scales are sometimes fully an inch long. They are narrowly 
lanceolate-acuminate, distantly ciliate-denticulate on the margin, 
and composed of narrow but somewhat sinuous cells. Mixed 
in with them are smaller scales, from two to four lines long, 
and more distinctly ciliate-toothed. The color of the scales 
is different in different specimens, varying from bright golden- 
brown to ferruginous-brown with a darker spot at the base, 
and from this to nearly black, especially in the sub-tropical 
and tropical forms of var. paleaceum. Such specimens are 
sometimes fairly shaggy with the abundance of scales, which 
are also found, decreasing in number and in size, on the 
midribs of the pinnae, and even on the lower surface of the 
segments. The usual number of fibro-vascular bundles is 
seven. 
The fronds are broadly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate in 
outline, usually narrowed a little, or even conspicuously nar- 
rowed, at the base, and acute or acuminate at the apex. They 
