









110 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
is simple the sorus is simply linear. Spore-cases nearly globose. 
Spores roundish or bluntly angular, faintly striato-punctate, dark 
brown-purple. 
Duration. The caudex is annual, and the development of the 
plant consequently rapid. In the wild state we learn that the 
prothallus is developed in the damp late autumnal months, being 
perfectly, formed in November; by January three or four fronds 
have been produced ; in April or May the growth is mature; and 
by August the plants have perished. Sometimes in cultivation the 
perfect fronds are not produced till the second year. 
This Fern clearly belongs to the genus Gymnogramma, which is 
distinguished from Grammitis by the greater length of the linear 
sori, and their more or less frequently forked condition. This 
group, though itself not too distinct from Grammitis, which has 
simple oblong sori, some modern botanists have separated into 
several genera, and one of these, Anogramma, was proposed expressly 
for the reception of this species. Beyond certain peculiarities of 
habit and aspect there is, however, nothing to separate generically 
any of the free-veined Gymnogrammas, and such distinetions 
as these alone are insufficient. Mr. Newman calls this S the 
Annual Maidenhair. 
No other British Fern approaches at all nearly to the Small- 
leaved Gymnogram, either in aspect, or in botanical characters. 
The habitat which brings this species within the British Flora, 
namely, the Island of Jersey, is to be understood as British rather 
politically than geographically. In that island the plant occurs in 
several ascertained localities, principally in the neighbourhood of 
St. Laurence, of St. Aubin, and St. Haule. It is said to have 
been first found by “a lady," in 1852; but the earliest public 
notice of the discovery, as far as we know, occurs in the early part 
of 1853, in one of the horticultural periodicals,* where, under the 
signature of J. M., we read :—“ Your assurance that my Fern is 
Gymnogramma leptophylla, an entirely new fern to the Flora of 
* Gardeners’ Chronicle, Jan. 29, 1853, p. 69. 

