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Htf&§Ml 
THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED FERNS. 
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China. Fronds slender, narrow linear-lanceolate, one and a half to two feet long, pinnate, deep green ; pinna? 
cordate-auriculate, oblong, sub-imbricate, round at the apex, crenate or slightly serrate on the margin. Eachis 
and stipes covered with narrow hair-like scales. Fronds terminal, adherent, forming a fascicle on a slender 
creeping rhizome. This species bears tubers similar to those of A r . undidata ; these produce plants, but the fronds 
do not die down annually. 
4. N. exaltata, Schott (Aspidium, Sioartz). — An ornamental evergreen stove Fern, a native of the West, Indies, 
South America, New Holland, and the Sandwich Islands. Fronds slender, glabrous, linear-lanceolate elongate, 
three to six feet long, and two to three inches broad, yellowish green, pinnate ; pinna? sub-cordate oblong-acute, 
auriculate on the upper side at the base, and serrate on the margin. Eachis and stipes clothed with narrow brown 
scales. Fronds terminal, adherent in a fascicle to a creeping wiry rhizome. 
5. N. platyotis, Kunze. — A robust-growing evergreen stove species, from the East Indies. Fronds lanceolate, 
pinnate, bright green, three to four feet long, reclining ; pinnas oblong-acute or acuminate, four or five inches 
long, truncate, auriculate at the base, and crenately-serrate on the margin. Eachis and stipes covered with woolly 
scales. Sori roundish reniform. Fronds terminal, adherent in a fascicle to a very slender creeping rhizome. 
6. iV. hirsutula, Presl (Aspidium, Swartz). — A rather erect-growing evergreen stove species, from the Islands 
of the Pacific. Fronds lanceolate, pinnate, two to three feet long, deep green, and covered throughout with small 
ferrugineous fimbriate hair-like scales ; pinnas oblong acuminate, three to four inches long, truncate, slightly 
auriculate at the base, and crenulate-serrate at the margin. Sori situate near the margin. Fronds terminal, 
adherent in a fascicle to the slender creeping rhizome. 
7. N. acuta, Presl (Aspidium, Schkuhr). — A very elegant evergreen stove Fern, from the East Indies. Fronds 
pubescent, broadly lanceolate, two to three feet long, pinnate, bright green ; pinnae large, oblong-acuminate, four 
to six inches long, sub-falcate, truncate, auriculate at the base on the superior side, and crenulate on the margin. 
Fronds terminal, adherent in a fascicle to a wiry creeping rhizome. 
SLEANDEA, Cavanilks. — The meaning of this name is unexplained. 
Sori round, transversely uniserial, costal or irregular. Indusium reniform, rarely orbicular. Veins 
simple or forked ; venules parallel, direct free, with their apices curved, forming a slightly thickened margin. 
Fronds simple, entire, lanceolate, stipitate, with the stipes articulated near or close to the rhizome, which is 
fruteseent or creeping. — The few species forming this genus are natives of tropical or sub-tropical countries ; they 
have a very distinct habit, are easily cultivated, and some of them are highly ornamental. The characters that 
distinguish them from Nephrolepis are their simple fronds with parallel veins, 
and the spore cases medial or costal. Fig. 67 represents part of a frond of 
0. nodosa (med. size). 
1. 0. nodosa, Presl (Aspidium, TFillclenow). — A free-growing evergreen 
stove species, from Jamaica and other "West Indian Islands. Fronds lanceo- 
late-acuminate, afoot or more long, bright green, reclining, attenuated at the 
base, and entire on the margin. Stipes and rachis ebeneous, the latter 
covered beneath with brown cordate scales. Fronds articulated, with the 
stipes at some distance from the rhizome, which is scaly and creeping. Sori 
scattered. 
2. hirtella, Miquel. — A very beautiful evergreen stove species, from 
Java. Fronds hairy, lanceolate, reclining, a foot or more long, very mem- 
branous, undulated, light green, round, or slightly attenuated at the base, and ^rzEES^S^ 
entire at the margin. Stipes short and scaly; rachis ebeneous. Fronds 
vtrticillate or sub-vertieillate, and articulated with a fruteseent scaly scan- trE 
dent rhizome. Sori uniserial. This plant is scarce in cultivation ; it was ^ : 
introduced to English gardens from the Continent about two years since. 
Sub-order— Polypodiaceje : Tribe — Djcksonie.2. 
The primary characteristics of the genera constituting this tribe are : — Sori round, globose, vertically oblong, 
or transversely elongated, and marginal ; the indusiform margin of the frond being changed, and more or less 
conniving with the special interior-attached lateral indusium, forming a marginal groove, or an urceolate, calyci- 
form, bilabiate, or tubular cyst, containing the spore-cases. The tribe comprises about two hundred described species 
among which the most extreme diversity of habit occurs. Some have a wiry csespitose rhizome, with fronds scarcely 
exceeding an inch high ; and others are among the loftiest of the Fern tribe, having a stout arborescent caudex, 
attaining the height of twenty or thirty feet, with a crown of fronds on the apex, each frond fifteen or twenty 
feet long. Their affinity with the Aspidiea? may be traced through Leucostcgia, which is scarcely different in the 
position of its sori and in its indusium from Nephrolepis, or some species of Lastrea ; but in habit it best coin- 
cides with the Dicksonieae, which differ from the Aspidiea? by having the sori seated under or on the immediate 
margin, or projecting beyond the margin, forming fertile erenules. The tribe Dicksoniece is represented by the 
genera Lindsrea, Davallia, Triehomanes, Dicksonia, &c., as characterized by Swartz, "Willdenow, and others, and 
presents a -group of species widely different in habit, texture of fronds, sori, and indusium. The species may be 
Fig. 67. 
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