European Ferns. 
I 2 
TRICHOMANES. 
E possess but a single species of this genus ; but it is one of the most interesting, 
as well as one of the most beautiful of our British ferns, forming the solitary 
European representative of a large group of from eighty to a hundred species 
which are abundant in the moist, shady, tropical woods of the Eastern and 
Western hemispheres. Like the Filmy Ferns, to which they are closely 
allied, the Bristle Ferns vary a good deal in habit, the fronds being simple, 
pinnate, or decompound, but agreeing in their membranous pellucid texture. 
One of the most remarkable of the entire-fronded species is T. reniforme , a 
plant confined to New Zealand ; in this the fronds are rigid and erect, two 
to four inches broad, and somewhat kidney-shaped, the numerous involucres 
being crowded along their edges. Another singular species belonging to this 
section has been discovered by Hildebrandt in the Comoro Islands, and 
named T. Hildebrandtii ; in this the circular fronds, about the size of a florin, are closely 
pressed to the trunks of the trees on which it grows, and resemble a liver-moss on a large scale. 
In a few species, natives of tropical and South America, the sterile and fertile fronds are very 
different in appearance, the latter consisting of a narrow distichous spike ; but they are usually 
uniform, varying in length from two or three lines to eighteen inches or more. T. Barklianum , 
a Mauritian species, is the smallest known fern, with the exception of the Malayan Hymenophyllum 
parvifolium. , which is about the same size ; it is calculated that it would take upwards of fifty 
fronds of these species to cover a square inch. Another Mauritian species, T. giganteum, is 
among the largest of the genus, having quadri-pinnatifid fronds from a foot to a foot-and-a-half or 
more in length, and about half as broad. T. pinnatum, a tropical American species, is a 
dimorphic plant, the fronds in the normal state being pinnate, and often rooting and 
proliferous at the apex ; in other specimens, however, they are long and narrow, about an 
inch broad throughout, and fringed with the fructification. T. membranaceum, which is also 
tropical American, has scarcely stalked, roundish, broad, irregular membranous fronds, which 
are fringed at the margin with a double row of peltate scales ; in habit it resembles the 
Peacock’s-tail Seaweed (. Padina pavonia). In several species the fronds are so finely divided 
as to present a feather-like appearance ; while in T. lucens and its allies the rachis is densely 
covered with brown hairs. 
TRICHOMANES RADICANS, Sw. 
This is known as the Killarney Fern. It has a long, black, tough, branched, wiry rhizome, 
having a tomentosc or woolly appearance, which is due to the presence of very small-jointed 
brown bristly paleae, and in large and old specimens extending several yards in length. From 
this arise, at very long intervals, the pendulous fronds ; these are of a pellucid membranous, 
but firm, texture, which, as Mr. Newman observes, “particularly resembles some of the marine 
Algae they are supported on a long, round, smooth stipes, with a narrow membranous wing 
running down each side. The leafy portion of the frond is usually about four to six inches in 
length, but may be smaller, or even reach a foot long ; in outline it is usually ovate-oblong 
and acute, and it is elegantly bi- or tri-pinnatisect. The pinnae are alternate, the lower being 
