usual forms of P. quadriaurita; this appears to us to be more 
conveniently regarded as a variegated form of a large-growing 
species, allied, indeed, to quadriaurita , to which the name of 
P. pyrophylla seems to belong. On the other hand, P. tricolor 
is by comparison a dwarf, being smaller in growth than the 
usual forms of P. quadriaurita , indeed quite identical in habit, 
constitution, and aspect with aspericaulis , of which species we 
think the Fern now before us is more properly to be considered 
as a gaily-coloured variety. No two Ferns having a family rela¬ 
tionship can well be more thoroughly dissimilar in a cultural 
point of view than the two beautiful variegated Ferns here re¬ 
ferred to. 
The plant forms a dwarfish spreading mass or tuft, with a 
small erect crown or caudex, from which the fronds are pro¬ 
duced on every side. The fronds, when of the largest size, are 
about a couple of feet in length: our figure representing very 
nearly the full size. They are what is called pedately pin- 
nate-pinnatifid, that is, the fronds are first divided in a pinnate 
manner, and these divisions are then cut into little segments, the 
lower pair giving off a branch on the hinder side near the base. 
The segments are narrow linear-oblong, bluntish, and somewhat 
curved, bearing the fructification on their margins. The pinnae 
have an elongated, lance-shaped outline, the segments at the 
extreme point being joined together into a bluntish tail or nar¬ 
row undivided leaflet. The stipites are roughish, of a dull purple 
colour, and somewhat scaly near the base, while the rachides and 
costee are purplish red, the latter bearing red spines along the 
upper side at the base of the segments. The young fronds ap¬ 
pear of a deep-red colour, the base of the segments next the 
rachis being at this stage pinkish. This deep purplish-red is 
permanent along the rachides and costse, but the segments gra¬ 
dually change to a deep green at the upper end, and to a 
greyish-white at the base, the three colours being in the perfect 
fronds very strikingly conspicuous. The fronds of very young 
plants are marbled with grey, exactly as occurs in P. asperU 
eaulis itself. 
