English Botany, Or, Coloured Figures of British Plants Volume 12 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 Excerpt: ...the name 'aquilina.' Others have seen in it a resemblance to an oak-tree, and the section is spoken of as 'King Charles in the oak.' Mr. Francis Darwin has observed glands secreting nectar at the base of the branches of the rachis; these glands cease to secrete when the frond is mature (Journ. Linn. Soc, vol. ii. p. 407). Mr. Moore distinguishes a variety integerrima, in which the secondary pinnules instead of being deeply pinnatifid are nearly entire, but this seems to be the effect of growing in poor soil. Seedling plants have the frond much thinner in texture, and the ultimate pinnules roundish-ovate and crenate; and the same form of the plant has been found on walls. Pt. aquilina is remarkable for the rudimentary state of the lamina when the fronds first emerge from the ground, but the after development is very rapid. Bracken or Brake-Fern or Common Brakes. Tribe VII.--ADIANTEiE. Caudex not growing in advance of the fronds, the stipes of which is not articulated to the caudex and does not separate from it. Sori punctiform or transversely oblong, on the apex of the veins upon a portion of the frond which is bent over, forming a false indusium, with the sori on the inner surface, but there is no true indusium. GENUS X VIII.--& DIA N T U M. Linn. Fronds produced near the apex of the rootstock, approximate or distant, coriaceous or herbaceous, simple pinnate or decompound; ultimate pinnules or segments commonly without a midrib or with a very eccentric one. Veins forked, free. Sporangia attached to the extremity of the veins on the refiexed 8aps of the margins of the frond, which form false indusia. Name from aSlavrov (adianton), a plant called Maidenhair. SPECIES I.-AD I ANT UM C APILLUS-VEN ERIS. Linn. Plate 1887. Rabcnh. Crypt. Vase. Europ. Ejwicc-No...