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THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED FERNS. 
bluntly acuminate, terminal one caudate. Fronds of a light green ; terminal, adherent to a somewhat creeping 
rhizome. This is one of the commonest Ferns in cultivation, propagating itself freely by its sporules, and thriv- 
ing in almost any situation, often becoming a pest in the stoves. 
2. D. media, R. Brown (D. lunulata, S. Br. MS.). — A very graceful evergreen greenhouse Fem, from New 
Holland, New Zealand, and Norfolk Island. Fronds slender, narrow-lanceolate, one to one and a half foot long, 
pendulous, dull green, except when young, then red, pinnate ; pinna; rugose, rigid, oblong-obtuse, inferior ones 
petiolatc, cordate-auriculate, superior sessile, margin spinulose-serrate. Sori uniserial or biserial. Stipes scaly 
near the base ; terminal, adherent to a somewhat creeping rhizome. 
3. D. aspcra, R. Brown. — A stiff -growing evergreen greenhouse Fern, from New South 'Wales. Fronds 
lanceolate, rigid, pinnatifid, ten inches high, dull green; segments linear-acuminate, sub-falcate, the margiu 
spinulose-serrate. Sori uniserial or biserial. Stipes scaly ; terminal, adherent to a somewhat creeping rhizome. 
4. D. blechnoides, Allan Cunningham (D. maxima, J. Smith in Loitd. Sort. Brit.) — An ornamental evergreen 
greenhouse species, from New South Wales. Fronds rigid, broadly lanceolate, one to one and a half foot long, dull 
green, pinnatifid ; segments approximating, lanceolate, repand, the margin spinulose-serrate. Sori uniserial. 
Stipes densely covered with black scales ; terminal, adherent to an erect fasciculate rhizome. 
\n[?OODWARDIA, Smith. — Name commemorative of Thomas JenMnson Woodward, an English botanist. 
UJ Sori oblong, or linear elongated, uniserial, immersed, produced on the transverse costal venules. 
Indtisium revolnte, vaulted, of the same form as the sori. Veins reticulated, becoming free near the margin. 
Fronds pinnate, from one to six feet long. Rhizome creeping. — The dissimilarity in habit and venation, of the 
few cultivated species arranged under this genus, as compared with ^ 
other genera, forms a striking peculiarity. In the habit and formation 
of the fronds, one species resembles a Lomaria ; the venation of another 
is identical with that of Doodia ; and a third is a large coarse-growing 
plant, with fronds five or six feet long, and viviparous near the apex. 
The position of the sori is the fundamental character that unites them 
in one group. They are very closely allied to Doodia, from which they 
are distinguished by the sori being deeply immersed, with a revolute, 
vaulted indusium, and a more compound anastomosing venation. Fig. 45 
represents a portion of a pinna of W. radicans (nat. size). 
1. W. radicans, Swartz. — A large coarse-growing evergreen green- 
house species, from Madeira, the South of Europe, Canaries, Nepal, 
and North West America. Fronds pinnate, five or six feet long, bright 
green ; pinna? oblong-lanceolate, one foot long, lower ones standing for- 
ward, deeply pinnatifid, petiolatc, segments somewhat lanceolate, repand, 
the apex mucronate, the margin spinulose-serrate. Stipes densely 
covered with very large brown scales. Fronds terminal ; adherent, 
rooting at the apex. Rhizome creeping. 
2. TV. onoclcoides, Willdenow (W. floridana, Sehhihr.) — A hardy 
deciduous Fern from North America. Fronds of two kinds : the sterile 
glabrous, pinnatifid, one foot long, pale green ; segments ovate-lanceo- 
late, margin serrate. The fertile erect, fifteen inches high, pinnatifid ; 
segments linear-acuminate, narrow. Fronds lateral, adherent to a creeping rhizome. 
3. W. Virginian, Swartz. — An ornamental hardy deciduous Fern, from North America. Fronds glabrous, 
ovate-lanceolate, pinnate, light green, one and a half to two feet high ; pinna; lanceolate, pinnatifid, petiolulatc, 
and articulate with the racbis ; segments oblong-ovate, rather obtuse, the margin entire. Fronds lateral, on a 
creeping rhizome. 
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Fig. 45. 
Sufi-order— Poi.YPoniACK.fi: : Trihr — Asplenias. 
This very distinct and well-marked tribe contains more than two hundred described species, nearly the whole 
of which wore originally comprehended under the two genera, Diplazium and Asplonium ; but according to the 
modern classification they are subdivided into about ten. Their most obvious distinction, and that by which 
they are easily recognized, is the unilateral, oblique, oblong or elongated sori. From the PteridetD they are 
distinguished by the position of the sori, which is always oblique in reference to the midrib or axis of venation, 
never parallel with either midrib or margin; and by the spore-cases being attached on the superior or inferior 
sides (unilateral), or on both sides (bilateral), of free or anastomosing venules, constituting linear or binate sori, 
each furnished with a special, laterally-attached, linear, plane or vaulted indusium. 
(HCOLOPENDKU'M, Smith. — Named from Scolopnidra, a centipede; alluding to the lines of fructification, 
1^?) which arc thought to resemble its feet. 
Sori linear, unilateral, continent in pairs, produced on the proximate Bides of the superior and inferior branch 
of each fascicle of veins. Indusium of the same form as the sori, with the free margins of each pair conniving, 
frp" ^ ' — 
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