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230 
THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED FEENS. 
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forming as it were but one sorus, opening by a longitudinal suture, each being attached to the proximate sides 
of two proximate venules. Veins forked ; venules parallel, direct, free, terminating within the margin, and 
having a club-shaped apex. Fronds simple, linear-lanceolate, plane undulated or divided at the apex, and 
cordate at the base. — No exotic species of this genus is at present in cultivation, and but three or four are 
known. That by which it is represented in our gardens is an indigenous species, of which there are a few 
varieties, all dwarf, handsome, shining evergreen plants. The genus is distinguished from Asplenium by the sori 
being in pairs, and although in an early stage quite distinct, as two separate sori, yet before they are far 
advanced they invariably become confluent. Fig. 46 represents the apex of a frond of iS'. vulgare (nat. size.) 
1. S. vulgare, Symons (S. ofiieinarum, 
Swartz). — A very beautiful hardy evergreen 
Fern, indigenous to Britain; found more 
or less distributed throughout Europe, and 
also occurring in North America. Fronds 
glabrous, simple, a foot or more long, 
shining, bright green, oblong-ligulate, acute, 
cordate at the base, entire at the margin. 
Stipes and rachis scaly ; terminal, adherent 
to a somewhat creeping rhizome. Sori 
linear occupying three-fourths of the under 
surface. 
— S. vulgare j8 polyschides. — Fronds 
simple or irregularly pinnatiiid, about a 
foot long, narrow oblong-linear, sinuated, 
or irregularly and often deeply lobed, with 
the segments somewhat overlapping each 
other. Sori oblong or linear, very irre- 
gular, occupying three -fourths of the under 
surface, and situated in the sinus, or on the 
lobes. A very distinct variety, not very 
common in cultivation. The late Mr. D. 
Cameron informed us that he had found it 
near Bristol. 
— S. vulgare y undulatum. — Fronds 
simple, oblong-ligulate, acute, about a foot 
long, sometimes divided at the apex, very 
much undulated or plaited, and crenate on 
the margin. The handsomest of all the 
Fig. 46. 
forms ; the fronds growing somewhat erect, and forming a close compact tuft ; 
they are generally destitute of fructification. 
— S. vulgare, 5 multifidum. — Fronds oblong, about a foot long, cordate at 
the base, entire at the margin, divided in a multifid manner at the apex ; often 
divided near the base into many branches, the apex of each branch multifid and 
tasselled, frequently pendulous. Sori linear occupying the upper half of the 
frond, and the whole of the ramifications. Sometimes the stipes is forked, and 
then it becomes what is called ramosum. A less compound division, in which 
the fronds are lobed only, and not tasselled, is called lobatum. They are 
scarcely distinct. 
A very singular form, intermediate between the vars. j8 and y, communi- 
cated by Sir W. C. Trevelyan, and found near Nettlecombe, in Somersetshire, 
is remarkable in having two prominent longitudinal ridges on the under sur- 
face, one on each side the midrib and near to the margin, the sori being 
exterior to them. The ridge is sometimes lobed and soriferous. 
These varieties, although originally found wild, are now better known as 
cultivated plants. 
Jill 
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BIPLAZIUM, Swartz. — Name derived from diplazo, to double ; from the cir- 
cumstance of two separate sori being placed back to back on a single 
veinlet. F & i7 
Sori linear, elongated, produced on both sides of the veinlets, constituting binate sori. All, or the lower 
veinlets only, soriferous on both sides ; the superior ones often producing simple linear sori, similar to Asplenium. 
Indusium generally plane, and of the same form as the sori. Veins forked or pinnate ; veinlets direct, free. 
Fronds simple, pinnate or bi-tri-pinnate, from one to eight feet long, usually glabrous. — The technical character 
T^SY^ 
