THE SMALL-LEAVED GYMNOGRAM. 109 
again dichotomously lobed, the lobules blunt and bifid. The next 
frond acquires an oblong ovate outline, and the three lobes are so 
far separated as to form three pinns, which are divided on the 
same dichotomous plan as the former; in one such example now 
before us, which is five-eighths of an inch long, the pinn® are each 
twice dichotomously lobed, and each ultimate lobe has its sides 
nearly parallel, and its apex blunt and two-cleft. Two or three 
fronds of this pinnate character, each successive one larger and 
more divided than the preceding, and all broader and more 
leafy in character than the subsequent ones, are produced during 
the adolescent state of the plants. After this stage has been 
passed, the fronds acquire height and become more eompoundly 
divided, and in two, three, or four stages, according to the vigour 
of the individual plant, reach to their full development. The 
intermediate fronds are from one-and-a-half inch to three inches - 
high, and are distinctly bipinnate, and generally fertile. The fully 
developed or mature fronds are from three to six or eight inches 
"high, and grow erect; these are oblong ovate, bi- or tri-pinnate, 
and fertile throughout. Pinne ovate triangular, alternate. Pinnules 
ovate wedge-shaped, about three-lobed, the lobes obovate, and 
notched at the apex; they are scarcely stalked, their base tapering 
down to a narrow and slightly decurrent point of attachment. Speci- 
mens of vigorous growth become tripinnate, by the more complete 
separation of the lobes of the pinnules. 
Venation of the ordinary pinnules consisting of a costa which 
forms by dichotomy a branch, 4. e. vein, at the base of each lobe; this 
vein becomes again branched in the same dichotomous manner 
near the centre of the lobe, its two venules being directed, one 
towards each of the two apical teeth, and terminating within the 
margin. Occasionally the lobe is not toothed, and the vein is 
simple. 
Fructification occupying the whole back of the frond, without 
covers. Sori linear, forked, occupying nearly the entire length of 
the venules, and a portion of the vein below the dichotomy, hence 
forked, that 1s, diverging in two lines from near the base of the 
pinnse along the narrow lobes nearly to their apex, at first distinct, 
but eventually becoming confluent into one mass. When the vein 

