^^1'' ] Lucas, Ferns Grown in /he Opem 91 



" sport." It has maintained its characters with me for about 

 nine years. 



Blechmim cartilagineurn is a local fern, and naturally very 

 hardy, but in the bush it always shows the effect of the summer, 

 and many of its fronds wilt. It makes up for this by the 

 delicate reddish-purple of the young fronds. My plants, though 

 not in special soil, fared better than those in the bush. B. 

 serriilatiim is a swamp plant, with creeping underground 

 rhizome ; it has responded well to the good soil and good water 

 supply. It is a little slow in starting after it is shifted, but 

 once it takes hold it goes ahead consistently. B. Icevigatuni is 

 referred to below. 



The alhes of Blechnum, the Lomarias — (N.B. — I have not 

 employed Christensen's classification, because I thought that 

 the old names as given by Bentham would be more familiar 

 to fern-growers) — have been very unequal in their heat- 

 resisting powers. L. Patersoni, growing wild by creeks in deep 

 gullies, came off rather badly, losing most fronds completely 

 and having the residue half-withered. The plants show signs 

 now of recovery. It is very tender in the matter of shifting, 

 likely looking young plants with a bole of earth enclosing their 

 roots going back for a time without any apparent reason. 

 They seem to be very shy of new soil. L. lanceolata is quite 

 hardy, even fairly large plants soon recovering after trans- 

 planting. The young plants, put in a year ago, have formed 

 large green rosettes without any throw-back. One is now 

 sending up its first fertile fronds. The rachis does not become 

 black until the plants are quite old. I discovered L. alpina 

 last Easter in the highest part of the Blue Mountains. We 

 regarded it as a Kosciusko or Mount Wellington plant, and had 

 not looked for it so far north. The plants settled down at 

 once in their new beds at the low altitude, and have spread 

 more rapidly than any other of my ferns. When exposed to 

 an exceptionally full hot sun they wilted and browned, but 

 have quite recovered. Others, in the shade, never went off. 

 L. capensis, usually growing near or in water, found things 

 trying, but was not killed out. I had been rather sceptical as 

 to the validity of Blechnum IcBvigatwn as a species, thinking it 

 a form of L. capensis. Hooker regarded it as "a very distinct 

 species," but Baron von Mueller admits that it can hardly be 

 known from the Lomaria in the fruiting ^ stage. The young 

 plants are certainly different in appearance ; the Blechnum is 

 always green and smooth, with short, rounded pinnae, while 

 the Lomaria is red and scaly, the fronds less erect, and ter- 

 minating in a long, flat segment. 



Asplenium nidus is the king of the fernery, seated on its 

 central throne. With plenty of water it has developed fresh 



