166 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



forming pretty miniature-garlands, Passiflora trifasciata, with 

 olive-green silver-streaked hand-shaped leaves, Philodendron verru- 

 cosum (Ph. Carderi) with warted velvety leaf-stalks and large satiny 

 green heart-shaped leaves, veined with brown, several Pathos, Raphi- 

 dojphoras, Scindapsus and Dioscoreas of rarer occurrence, are other 

 highly effective creepers, while the graceful, light green, climbing 

 fern Lygodium microphyllum, is most useful for concealing small 

 objects, and its congener Lygodium scandens, which many visitors 

 to our hill-stations will often have admired in* its perfect wild state, 

 may form an attractive object during the rains, but is unfortunately 

 dormant the remainder of the year. Of recently introduced creepers 

 which have proved valuable additions to our Ferneries, Schizandra 

 (Sphcerostema) marmorata with large silvery leaves, and Tecoma 

 ( C amp sidium) Jilicifolia, with small fern-like leaves, may be men- 

 tioned. Bombay offers so many advantages for the cultivation of 

 ferns, that this class of plants will in most cases be numerically 

 strongest represented in our Ferneries. Among them the most 

 popular are Maiden-hair ferns (Adiantums) of which a great 

 number of kinds are represented. The most common of these is 

 the vigorous and rather tall-growing Adiantum tenerum, easily 

 distinguished by its large, yet finely divided, and gracefully 

 arching light green fronds, which in its variety A. t Farleyense 

 assume a more drooping habit, and have larger and lighter 

 green, beautifully fringed segments. This variety is generally 

 supposed to be sterile, but at last year's flower-show a well- 

 known fern-cultivator in Bombay, Mr. E. S. Luard, exhibited a 

 fine lot of young plants, unmistakably belonging to this variety, 

 which were raised from spores. A striking contrast to the preced- 

 ing kinds occurs in the common and easily cultivated A. trapeziforme 

 with very broad angular segments, which sometimes attains a height 

 of 3 to 4 feet. Similarly-shaped segments are found in the varieties 

 A. t. St. Catherines, and A. t. pentadactylon which however are 

 distinguished by a lighter green colour and by a very different, less 

 vigorous habit ; in the magnificent A. peruvianum with large, grace- 

 fully arching fronds, and iu the quaint A. macrophyllum with 

 almost vertical fronds, and drooping often rosy-tinged seg- 

 ments. A. digilatum (speciosum), with its large spreading 



