name. ^Yo append a moro complete description of this plant, than
of our other varieties, for the convenience of those who still regard
it as a distinct species :—
Caudex stoutish, decumbent or slowly creeping in a horizontal
direction, with the fronds growing erect from its apex ; branched,
sometimes more or less tufted, slightly scaly, formed of the enlarged
and enduring bases of the decayed fronds, surrounding a woody axis.
Soaks resembling those of the stipes. Fibres coarse, numerous,
branched, dark brown.
Vernation circinate ; sometimes in this plant the rachis is simply
circinate, hut in other oases besides the ordinary involution, there is
also a lateral curvature ; the piunæ and pinnules are all separately
involute.
Stipes terminal and adherent to the caudex, noarly as long as
the leafy part of the frond, stoutish, dark brown-purple at the base ;
sparsely scaly, with broad-ovate membranaceous pale-brovm scales
of which many become at length more or less appressed ; the scales
are most numerous near the base. Rachis stoutish, ohannollod in
front, scarcely at all scaly, pale green, smooth.
Fronds from two to four or five feet in height, erect, herbaceous,
yellowish green, narrow oblong-lanoeolate tapering at the apex,
bipinnate. Finnæ numerous, opposite or suhopposite below, often
becoming more alternate above ; the lower ones distant, obliquely
triangular, from the greater size of the posterior basal pinnules,
measuring (in average specimens, two feet or upwards in height)
about four inches in length, and three inches across the base, of
which latter the posterior pinnules measure nearly two inches ; the
upper ones are less distant and narrower, of an elongate triangular
outline, those just above the middle measuring four and a half
inches long, and barely two inches broad at the base, where the
posterior and anterior pinnules are of nearly equal size. Tho pinnæ
are stalked, frequently more or less drooping, and often twisted so
as to turn their upper surface towards the apex of the frond, hut
this peouHar twisting is less marked than in cristata. Pinnules
oblong acute, broadest at the base, the lower ones with a short
stalk-like attachment, the upper more or less adnate ; the basal
pmnules (of the pinnæ half-way up the fertile fronds) pinnatifid
almost to the midrib, with oblong aouto lobes ; the lobes strongly
serrated, with spinulose teoth, whose points aro directed towards
tho apex of the lobo, and often curved upwards above tho piano
of its surface; tho upper pinnules aro oithor inciso-lohate with
spinulosely serrate lobes, or coarsely serrate with spinulose teeth.
The barren fronds usually, and some of the fertile ones, aro broader
and more lax in hahit than thoso above described, and sometimes
entire plants assume this character.
Venation of the pinnules (the basal ones of fertile pmnæ near the
centre of the frond,) consisting of a stout midvoin, from which a
primary vein extends into each lobe, where it forms a flexuous
secondary midvein, hearing alternate forked venules, on the short
anterior fork of which, nearly at its point, and standing just beneath
the sinus of the serrature, the sorus is placed, the son then forming
two rows along the lobes of the pinnules. In the less divided
pinnules at the middle of the pinnæ, the primary m id ^ in produces
hranohod veins, and the anterior basal venule also in this case hears
the sorus, near to its termination, so that the sori then form two
lines along the pinnule itself. This latter boing the structure of the
greater number of pinnules, the general aspect of the fructification
is to form two lines lengthwise on the pinnule. The venules are
directed ono towards each serrature, hut terminate before reaching
it, in a thickened point. _
Fructification on the hack of the frond, usually occurring on the
upper half, hut sometimes extending over tho whole surface. Son
numerous, round, indusiate, medial or subterminal on the anterior
basal venules, (or on several venules in the deeply pinnatifid basal
pinnules,) forming a line on each side the midvein ; usually distinct,
hut often crowded. Indusium flat, roniform, memhranaooous, persistent,
with an entire margin, wavy or with angular projections, but
without glands. Spore-cases brown, numerous, rotundate. Spores
oblong, granulated.
Duration. Tho caudox is perennial. Tho fronds are annual, the
first growth appearing early in May, and others growung up at
intervals through tho summer; they perish in autumn when
exposed, but under shelter, though decaying near the base of the
stipes so as to he unable to stand erect, they nevertheless retain
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