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rock, where it ¡s bedewed by spray from falling water, or where the clear
water trickling from hidden springs keeps the fronds constantly moist, and
where the fine drops hang trembling on the pendent fronds before falling.
Each frond of this fern has an interesting history. From first to last, they
live many years. The whole under surface of the rock is one matted mass
of roots and stems, covered with innumerable translucent fronds, in all
stages of growth and maturity. The young frond gradually expands, and
slowly attains full size. In two or three years, perhaps, the fruit begins to
develop on the edges of the fronds, at the tips of the veins. This fruit
is clustered in a cup around a fine hair which comes from its centre. The
hair, or bristle, continues to grow in length, and the fruit to develop at its
base around it. As the bristle grows in length — sometimes it is found
an inch long — the ripe fruit is shed, so that there remains about the
same quantity of fruit always at the base of the hair. The whole life of
the frond may be half a dozen years.”
Our plant differs from the original plant of Swartz, from
the West Indies, only in its somewhat smaller size; and, if not
specifically identical with the Killarney bristle-fern, then lh a l is
to be called T. speciositm (Willdenow), and ours should keep the
name of T. radicazis. The name proposed by Sturm, and published
with a long description by Van den Bosch, is wholly
superfluous.
Plate XX IV., Fig. i. — Trichomanes radicans; a plant with four
fronds in various stages of development. The magnified parts sufficiently
explain themselves.
r
P l a t e XX IV . — F ig . 2.
T R ICH O M A N E S P E T E R SH , G r a y .
P e te r s ’s B r is t le -F e rn .
T r ic h o m a n e s P e t e r s i i : — A t in y p la n t , g r o w in g in b ro a d
p a t c h e s : r o o t - s to c k s t h r e a d l i k e ; f r o n d s tw o to s i x l in e s lo n g ,
c u n e a te -o b o v a t e o r o b lo n g - la n c e o la t e , e n t i r e o r v a r io u s l y lo b ed ,
n a r ro w e d in to a s le n d e r s t a lk a s lo n g a s th e fro n d , th e y o u n g e r
o n e s o fte n w i th a f e w fo rk e d b la c k i s h h a i r s a lo n g th e m a r g i n ;
v e in s fo rk e d , p in n a te f r om a m id v e in , a f e w u n c o n n e c te d v e in le
t s a l s o p r e s e n t , b u t n o m a r g in a l v e in ; in v o lu c r e s o l i t a r y , te r m
in a l, fu n n e l- fo rm , th e m o u th e x p a n d in g , a n d s l i g h t l y tw o - l ip p e d ;
c o lu m e l la s c a r c e ly e x s e r t e d .
Trichomanes Petersii, G r a y , in Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, May, 1 8 5 3 , p. 3 2 6 .
— H o o k e r , Ic. PL, x., t. 9 8 6 . — V an d e n B osch, Syn. Hymeno-
phyllacearum, p. 1 5 . — E aton, in Chapman’s Flora, p. 5 9 7 .—
H o o k e r & B a k e r , Syn. Fil., p. 74.
Microgonium Petersii, V a n d en B osch, Hymenoph. Javan., p. 7.
H a b . — In the shade, on sand-rock kept moist by running water,
near the Sipsey River in Winston County, Alabama: discovered by Hon,
T homas M inott P e t e r s Jan. 8 , 1 8 5 3 , and since gathered by the same
naturalist in other neighboring places. The Florida station, mentioned
in Chapman’s Flora, needs confirmation, and is very possibly an error.
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