THE FLORIST. 
166 
portions, that it looks like the living type of that wonderful Flora which, 
ages upon ages ago, covered vast tracts of country with a dense and 
luxuriant vegetation, successive forests of which were buried beneath 
the sand and mud cast upon them by some terrible convulsion of 
nature, their remains forming the strata which we now quarry as coal, 
and which forms one of our greatest national treasures. The rapidity 
of its growth, the peculiar appearance of the plant, as well as its great 
size, favour this idea. One can hardly believe, at first, that the 
Angiopteris belongs to the same family as the semi-transparent and 
delicate little species of Trichomanes ; the whole plant, in some kinds of 
the last-named genus, might be covered with a shilling. 
The fronds of this plant are about eighteen feet In length, spreading 
out at regular distances ; there are a dozen and a half of these fronds. 
Each one is supported by a thick stem, as much as eight or nine inches 
in circumference; what a contrast to that of the Maiden-hair Fern 
(Adiantum), which looks like fine black wire. All the fronds of the 
Angiopteris radiate from a large solid crown, having two thick fleshy 
appendages at the base of each. The fronds are twdce divided (bi- 
pinnate), the ultimate divisions being linear-lanceolate in form, and 
about three inches in length. In old plants, almost every pinnule is 
fertile, the cases containing the spores being arranged in a double row 
along the veins towards their points. These spore-cases are separate, 
and usually eight or ten in number; this is the leading character which, 
in a botanical point of view, separates Angiopteris from the nearly allied 
genus Marattia—in the latter, the spore-cases are united. Tlie 
number of spores which such a plant as this must ripen is something 
too enormous for the mind to grasp—it borders upon the infinite. 
There are, as was said before, eighteen fronds upon the plant; each of 
these produces on the average thirty primary divisions (pinnae), and 
one of these taken from the middle of the frond will be found to be 
subdivided into about a hundred pinnules. One pinnule taken from 
near the middle, so as to get the average as nearly as possible, we found 
to have about two hundred and thirty veins which bore sori, each of 
these sori consisting of from eight to ten spore-cases. How^ many spores 
each case might contain, would require great microscopic .power and still 
greater patience to determine. We have, however, carried it far 
enough to show that it is an arithmetical calculation of proportions cor¬ 
responding with the plant which gave rise to them. 
The name of this plant is very frequently mis-spelt. We often find 
it called Angiopteris erecta (upright-growing), instead of A. evecta 
(which means spreading), the alteration of a single letter giving a 
different and quite erroneous meaning to the term. 
There are now several kinds of Angiopteris in cultivation, but as 
they all appear inclined to grow to a similar size, and as their general 
characters are all nearly alike, one specimen of the genus will be as 
mu h as even the most princely establishment will find room for. We 
however subjoin a list of them:—A. Teysmanniana, A. gigantea, 
A. Brogniartii, and A. pruinosa. There are several other names, but 
most likely they are only synonyms. The last-named species is beau¬ 
tifully white on the under side of the fronds. 
