140 BRITISH FERNS 
proper. It is a very small Fern, of com- 
paratively simple make, as shown in Fig. 
143, and, like the rest of the genus, a 
large one, boasting many very beautiful 
silver and gold exotics, the spores are 
simply scattered along the lines of the 
veins on the under side of the frond, 
eventually covering the backs entirely. 
The Fern, as found at one or two stations, 
occurs in moist places, associated with 
moss and lichens, but we have found it 
in the Orient, in company with Ceterach 
officinarum, a Fern of exactly opposite 
~ tastes, to which the conditions approached 
far more closely. It is one of the rare 
Ferns which are annuals, only lasting one 
season, and springing anew the next from 
the spores produced. Under culture, 
therefore, a bell glass or close case must 
be used, and moist conditions maintained, 
in which event it may re-establish itself 
season after season by self-sown spores. 
No varieties. 

Fig. 143. С. leptophylla. 
HYMENOPHYLLUM TUNBRIDGENSE 
(THE TUNBRIDGE FILMY FERN) 
(Plate XXXIX ) 
This is a very small and moss-like Filmy Fern, so named because 
first noticed at Tunbridge, in Kent, which grows also in moss-like 
masses in mountain glens on the rocks by 
stream sides, and is very generally distributed 
in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and 
adjacent islands where suitable habitats exist. 
Its slender fronds (Fig. 144) are nearly twice 
divided, and arise from almost threadlike 
creeping and branching rootstocks, which in 
favourable situations form dense mats on the 
rock faces, but only in such situations where 
the fronds are constantly bedewed with mois- и 
ture. The spores are borne in receptacles, ш шш: 
cup-shaped, with saw-toothed edges, as shown , , ^ Zunbridgense, 
іп Fig. 414. For culture see Wardian Case Cul- (Pinna and sporangium). 
ture (page 45). Forms have been found in which the fronds branch 
on somewhat cristate lines, but this adds nothing of decorative 
value to Ferns of this diminutive and massed class. Quite evergreen, 
the fronds lasting for years. 

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