BEAUTIFUL FERNS. 
I4I 
frond. These auricles are scantily developed in small fronds ; 
but in larger ones they are more or less prominent, making the 
base of the frond either cordate or hastate. In specimens from 
Cheshire, Connecticut, and in some from Indiana, the auricles are 
drawn out into slender points, in one instance fully four inches 
long. The fronds are deep-green in color, and sub-coriaceous in 
texture. The fronds of mature plants are from six to twelve, or 
even fifteen, inches long; and their greatest width, measured just 
above the auricles, is about one-twelfth of the length, or from six 
to fifteen lines. The midrib is a little paler than the rest of the 
frond, and is rather prominent on the under surface. The margin 
of the frond is gently undulating or entire, rarely incised.^ The 
upper part of the frond is scarcely wider than the stalk, and 
commonly produces a proliferous bud at the apex, where it very 
frequently takes root, and develops a new plant. In this way a 
single plant in a favorable position will become a whole colony 
in a few years’ time. 
The venation is peculiar, and the disposition of the sori 
depends mainly on the peculiarities of the venation. Dr. End- 
licher’s description of them is so clear, that it is well to repeat it 
here : “ Veins anastomosing [i.e., reticulating] in two series of 
hexagonal areoles [meshes], the angles of the marginal areoles 
sending out free, simple or forked, veinlets. Sori linear, solitary 
in the costal areoles [those nearest the midrib] and on the mar- 
ginal veinlets : the indusium of the latter free toward the margin 
* See the “Flora of New York” for some figures of lacinlated and forking 
fronds. 
