





























250 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
and sparingly fimbriate or lacerate on the margin, and generally 
contorted. Fibres long, stout, wiry, branched, dark brown, tomentose. 
Vernation circinate. 
Stipes usually about half the entire length of the frond, rigid, 
moderately stout, brownish-purple from the base upwards, furnished 
plentifully with subulately-lanceolate entire fimbriate or lacerate 
scales of a pale rusty-brown colour; terminal, and adherent to the 
caudex. Rachis greenish, furnished with fewer and smaller scales, 
and as well as the stipites and secondary rachides bearing numerous 
small sessile spherical glands. 
Fronds numerous, from one to two feet high including the stipes, 
and from about five to eight inches across, sometimes smaller, of a 
rich bright green, somewhat paler beneath, drooping, the upper 
surface crispy; triangular, or elongate-triangular, or sometimes 
ovate, tripinnate, the lower surface sprinkled with minute sessile 
glands. Pinne opposite or sub-opposite, the lowest usually, but 
not always the longest, broadly and unequally deltoid, the pinnules 
on the posterior side being larger than those on the anterior; the 
succeeding pinnee become gradually narrower and less oblique. Pin- 
nules pyramidately-triangular, or obliquely-oblong, the basal pos- 
terior ones of the lowest pinne much longer than the rest, and 
divided into ovate-oblong or oblong pinnulets, the largest of which 
are deeply pinnatifid, the lobes being oblong serrated. The basal 
pinne, pinnules, and_pinnulets are all stalked, the upper ones 
becoming in gradation sessile and then decurrent. The margins 
of the pinnules and lobes are mucronately toothed, and these mar- 
gins are turned upwards from the plane of the spreading or drooping 
frond, so that all the ultimate divisions are concave, and the entire 
frond has a beautiful crispy appearance, which, together with its 
lively colour and graceful habit, render it one of the most orna- 
mental of the robust Ferns. 
Venation of the pinnulets consisting of a dark-coloured flexuous 
vein formed of a branch from the costa or midvein of the primary 
pinnule; this produces short lateral forked venules, the anterior 
branch of which bears a sorus below its apex; all the veinlets termi- 
nate within the margin. 
Fructification on the back of the frond occupying the whole under 

