550 
CULTURE OF IJARDY FERNS, 
obtusely bifid ; involucres cylindrical, scarcely 
two-lipped, solitary in the axils of the upper 
segments, more or less winged ; receptacles 
filiform, exserted. — Desc. : Trichomanes radi- 
cans, Swartz. Hook. Species Filicura, i. 125. 
Trichomanes radicans. 
Bab. Manual, 2 ed. 415. Tricliomanes spe- 
ciosum, "Willdenow. Newm. Brit, Ferns, 
2 ed. 305. Trichomanes ,hrevisetum, R. Br. 
Sm. Eng. Fl. iv. 311. Hook. Brit. Fl. 5 ed. 
445. Franc. Anal. 3 ed. 62. Trichomanes 
alatuvi, Hook. Fl. Lond. Trichoma7ies euro- 
p<^um, Smith. IIymenophyllu7n alatum, 
Smith. Didymoglossum alatum, Desvaux. — 
Fig : Newm. 305. Eug. Bot. 1417. Franc. 
pi. 6, fig. 6. _ 
"/3. Andrewsii; fronds drooping-lanceolate, 
lower pinnae distant, short, involucres im- 
mersed, receptacles long curved upwards. 
Desc : Newm. Ferns, 2 ed. 318. Bab. 
Manual. 2 ed. 415. Trichomanes Andrercsii, 
Newm. p. 14. Fig : Newm. 315. 
" The Bristle Fern — one of the most rare 
and delicate of all our native species — has an 
elongated creeping caudex which, as well as 
the branching roots, are dark-coloured, and 
clothed with small thick-set narrow articulated 
scales or bristles, thus acquiring a downy sur- 
face, which is less apparent in the variety An- 
drewsii, than in the more usual state of the plant. 
The fronds, as has been well remarked, con- 
sist of hard wiry-branched ribs or veins, each 
furnished throughout with a semi-membranous 
pellucid wing, the wings, in fact, forming the 
leafy portion of the frond ; their shape is 
variable, from angular-ovate, approaching tri- 
angular, to oblong-acuminate or lanceolate, 
the latter being the form of those of the 
variety Andrewsii ; they spring up solitary 
here and there from the caudex as it becomes 
extended over the damp surface of the rocks, 
and are three years arriving at a mature con- 
dition ; the young ones being formed about 
May, attaining their full development in the 
second autumn, and becoming fruitful in the 
autumn of the third year, after which they 
show symptoms of decay ; the barren fronds, 
however, retain their freshness in moist situa- 
tions for many years. The stipes are some- 
times less than one-fourth the length of the 
leafy portion of the frond, and in others 
equally long ; it is winged throughout with 
a narrow border. The fronds, which are cir- 
cinate in venation, are usually thrice pinna- 
tifid ; the primary divisions, which are ovato- 
lanceolate and alternate, almost become pinnae ; 
the secondary lobes are broadly or narrowly 
ovate, according to their position, and the 
ultimate divisions are narrow linear, in some 
cases entire, and in others obtusely bifid. 
The whole of the leafy part of the frond is of 
a semi-transparent cellular texture, and is 
seen, when slightly magnified, to be elegantly 
reticulated. The veins may be compared to 
wiry ribs branching and extending through 
all the divisions of the frond ; in the bai'ren 
pai'ts these terminate at or within the apex 
of the ultimate lobes ; but where the fructifi- 
cation is produced, they become elongated be- 
yond the margin, the free portion being sur- 
rounded at the base, where they are encircled 
by the spore cases, by a monophyllous, or 
elongate cup-shaped involucre, and becoming 
more or less lengthened beyond the involucre ; 
the latter either projects beyond the mai'gin, 
as in the ordinary plant, or is, as it were, im- 
mersed in the substance of the frond, as in 
Andrewsii. The veins of the fronds have been 
already (p. 3,) described as the receptacles ; 
the veins, which in this plant are elongated 
beyond the margin bearing the fructification, 
are hence the receptacles ; and it is around 
the base of these, which is covered by the 
involucre, that the spore cases are clustered. 
The degree of the elongation of the receptacle 
is very variable ; sometimes it projects but 
slightly, and at other times is two or three 
times as long in the involucres ; in the variety 
Andrewsii they are five, and even six times 
as long as the involucres, and curve up from 
the surface of the fronds in a very conspi- 
cuous manner. The fructification becomes 
mature in the autumn. 
"Neither the species nor variety are certainly 
known to exist in a wild state in the United 
Kingdom, elsewhere than in Ireland, where 
both are found sparingly, in several localities, 
attached to dripping rocks and the walls of 
damp caves, in shaded glens, and the vicinity 
of waterfalls ; it is also found in some of the 
warmer parts of Europe, in Asia, and in 
,both Americas." 
The Lady Fern, already alluded to in these 
remarks, is thus described : — 
" Genus VII. Athyrium, Roth. — Mid-vein 
distinct, lateral veins branched free ; sori 
