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THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED FERNS. 
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height from six inches to eight feet. Only one representative of the genus is at present in cultivation. The 
technical characters by which the genus is distinguished are the uniform reticulated venation, and erect caudiciform 
rhizome. Fig. 28 represents a pinna of the sterile and fertile fronds of A. auremn (med. size). 
1. A. aweum, Linnreus, — A noble evergreen glabrous stove fern, native of the West Indies, tropical America, 
and East Indian and Polynesian Islands. Fertile fronds contracted, erect, pinnate, from six to eight feet high, 
soriferous throughout, or two or three of the lower pairs of pinna? sterile. Sterile frond pinnate, six to eight feet 
long, reclining, with lanceolate-acuminate rather membranous light green pinnoe, the lower ones petiolate, cuneate 
at the base, upper ones adnate at the inferior base, and decurrent. The fronds are terminal, adherent to an erect 
caudiciform rhizome. 
In the Magazine of Natural History (183S, p. 453) are some observations on this species by It. Heward, Esq., 
F.L.S. : — "This noble fern is veiy plentiful in morasses and water-courses in the lowlands of Jamaica. It 
grows from eight to ten feet in height. I never found it at any 
great elevation above the sea shore." In cultivation, it requires 
a mixture of turfy loam and sand, abundance of water, and a 
heat of 85° or 90° Fahrenheit, when it will form a splendid 
object. 
'ff^LATYCERIUM, Desvaux (Acrostichi, sp. Swartz). — Named 
i\ from plati/s, broad, and keras, a horn ; the fertile fronds re- 
sembling broad horns, as those of the elk. 
Sori without any denned form, produced in irregular patches 
towards the extremities of the fertile fronds, or on a special lateral 
thickened lobe, the sporangiferous receptacle being formed of an 
accessory layer of parallel anastomosing veinlets, which cross the 
sterile ones, and produce crowded linear lines of spore-cases. Veins 
repeatedly forked, and distantly anastomosing ; venules internal, 
compoundly reticulated, with variously directed free veinlets, ter- 
minating in the areoles. Fronds simple, forked, coriaceous, thick 
and spongy ; the sterile sessile, rounded or elongated, uniform, 
depressed or ascending, sublobatc, permanent and successively im- 
bricated, forming an elevated spongy mass ; the fertile widening 
upwards, and dividing into broad forked segments. — The few 
species contained in this genus have an epiphytal habit, and pro- 
duce their fertile fronds annually; these are attached by an articu- 
lation, and when mature fall spontaneously, the persistent depressed 
alternate sterile ones then having the appearance of a lichen or 
fungus. The generic name is in this case very expressive, the 
fertile fronds having a striking resemblance to broad flat horns. 
In the absence of fructification, the genus is readily known by 
a stellate pubescence that covers the whole surface. Fig. 29 re- 
presents a portion of the fertile frond of P. alcicoriie (med. size). 
1. P. alcicoriie, Desvaux : Swartz. — A very singular epiphytal 
fern, a native of New Holland, requiring to be cultivated in an 
"intermediate" house. Sterile frond sessile, round or elongated, 
the upper portion sublobatc, permanent, elevated, spongy, renifomi, 
and depressed. Fertile frond simple, divided, horizontal or oblique, 
thick and coriaceous, twelve to fifteen inches long, widening 
upwards, white on the under surface, and articulated on a short 
slightly creeping rhizome. Sori amorphous in patches, occupying 
the lobes or extremities of the frond, which is densely covered 
throughout with a stellate pubescence. 
2. P. Stemaria, Desvaux: Swartz.— An ornamental evergreen epiphytal fern, from Western Africa. Sterile 
frond sessile, elongated, ascending, upper part scarcely lobed, reniform permanent elevated spongy and depressed. 
Fertile frond simple, divided, horizontal, thick and coriaceous, one to two foot long, widening upwards, and 
articulated with the rhizome. Sori occupying the lobes. 
3. P.grande, J. Smith (Aerostichum grande, Allan Cunning/iain),—Oi\c of the most singular of all ferns. An 
epiphytal evergreen stove species, a native of New JJolland and the Malayan [elands, Sterile frond sessile, 
reniform, round or elongated, ascending, two to two aud a half feel high, the upper portion dividing into many 
broad blunt segments, permanent, elevated, spongy, and depressed. Fertile frond simple, two to three times 
divided, horizontal and pendulous, thick and coriaceous, two and a half or three feel long, widening upwards, 
articulated on a short rhizome. Sori in a large triangular patch adjacent to the sinus of the Brsl divi ion, I 
Covered throughout with a stellate pubescence. 
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