328 
THE FERN WORLD 
designations as will represent their most prominent pecu- 
liarities. 
Description. — The fronds of this Fern grow from the 
rootstock in tufts, attaining a height of from one to three 
feet, and assuming a very erect position. The rootstock 
itself has a creeping habit, so much so that it becomes 
branched or multiplied in time into several tufts or clusters 
of crowns, often extending, when the plant is growing 
under congenial circumstances, into patches of considerable 
extent, all connected with each other. The stipes is usually 
somewhat short, and rarely exceeds a third of the length of 
the entire frond, being often much shorter. It is furnished 
with a few scales at its base, and scales are, more sparingly, 
scattered over the rest of its surface. The form of the leafy 
portion of the frond is somewhat narrowly oblong, the pinnae 
being mostly of equal length from the base to about three- 
fourths of its length ; from that point, however, narrowing to 
a point at the apex. They are somewhat distant from each 
other towards the base of the frond, but become more closely 
set towards the apex. The pinnae are triangular in shape, 
broadest at their bases, and pointed at their apices. The 
basal •pinnae are wider than the higher ones, which gradually 
become narrower as they approach the apex of the frond, 
finally merging at the extreme point of the latter. The 
pinnae are divided into oblong blunt-pointed pinnules, 
attached by the whole width of their bases to the mid-stems 
of the pinnae, and somewhat sharply notched or serrated. The 
basal pinnules nearest the main rachis on the under side of 
the lowest pairs of pinnae are somewhat longer than those on 
the upper side. But the difference decreases as the pinnules 
become smaller and smaller towards the apices of the pinna*. 
The venation consists of a waved mid-vein running through 
the pinnules ; and of venules branching from this mid-vein 
on each side, and two or three times forked, towards the serra- 
