7 . 
THE ANNUAL MAIDENHAIR. 
Gymnogram m a leg tog h ij lla. 
Plate 5, Fig. 8, Page 225. ' 
This pretty little Fern, to which botanists have given a 
formidable name of no less than twenty-two letters, is the 
only representative amongst us of the charming group of 
gold-and-silver-frouded Ferns comprehended within the 
genus Gymnocjramma. It has a peculiarity shared by no 
other British species ; for it is an annual plant, dying each 
year soon after it has shed its spores. It inhabits the moist, 
shady sides of hedge-banks. From its love of warmth, as 
well as moisture, it prefers to grow in a position facing 
either the south or the south-west. But curiously enough; 
whilst it likes the shade of the dwarf vegetation on the 
hedge-sides, it avoids the deeper shade caused by the over- 
hanging of trees. The moist oozing of water over the bank 
on which it grows is congenial to its luxuriant growth. It 
is a sociable little Fern, growing in the company either of 
moss or of other vegetation which loves a continually 
moistened soil. The growth of the spores of Gymnogramma 
leptophylla is unusually rapid. The process of germination 
is commenced in the early autumn. In the January follow- 
ing fronds have appeared an inch or a little more in length. 
These are succeeded by other and taller fronds ; and the 
latter by still taller ones, which attain a height of eight 
or nine inches. By the end of April the full growth has 
p 
