380 
THE FERN PARADISE. 
The leaflets arranged in alternation on each side 
of the rachis—longest in the middle of the rachis, 
shorter at the base, and shortest at the top—are 
narrow and tapering, and are symmetrically 
ivided into oblong blunt-pointed lobes; some of 
them—the largest ones, and those nearest the 
rachis in the lower part of the frond—being quite 
separate from each other,—that is to say, divided 
quite down to the mid-stem of the leaflets; the 
others being attached to those next to them by a 
leafy wing, and those nearest the tips cf the 
leaflets being almost merged into each other. The 
lobes are broadest at the base, with rounded blunt 
points. There is a smooth, shiny, rigid, leathery 
appearance about the upper surface of the lobes, 
the backs of which have a duller, rougher surface. 
The spores are produced on the backs of the 
leaflets, usually in the upper portion of the frond; 
and each leaflet is thickly studded with the little 
kidney-shaped clusters of the cases which contain 
them. In the early summer, and until each frond 
has reached its full development, the scale cover¬ 
ings of these clusters are green; but they soon 
turn to a rich dark reddish-brown colour, and 
