10 



THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



pelled to fruit my fruiting rod a 

 second time. The spur system is 

 preferable because it neither con- 

 sumes too much daylight or too 

 much of the strength of the vine, and 

 it is a more reasonable practice than 

 the long rod, because when we have 

 obtained a stout, strong ripe rod, it 

 is a bird in hand and has its value 

 a ccordingly. But against the spur 



system it may be urged that the 

 spurs become at last mere stumps, 

 and the vine declines in health be- 

 cause the indurated bark of those 

 spurs resists the flow of the sap. 

 The close system obviates this evil 

 and keeps the spurs perpetually 

 young. But it must be followed 

 from the first or not at all, but if so 

 followed it never fails. 



THE BRITISH FERNS. 



{An abridgement of a Paper read by Me. Shirley Hibbeed before the Central 

 Horticultural Society, Dec. 13, 1864.) 



The British ferns very nearly repre- 

 sent the Filices of the entire globe. 

 Forms of Lastrea filix mas are found 

 in all parts of Europe, in India, 

 North America, Chili, the Sandwich 

 Islands, and Madeira. I have here 

 some fronds of ferns recently raised 

 from spores sent from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and they are nearly 

 identical with our common male fern, 

 the only difference being the slight 

 pubescence of the stipes and rachis. 

 The common Polypody is found in 

 Siberia, Algiers, South Africa, Mexico, 

 California, and Nootka Sound. It is 

 impossible for a novice to distinguish 

 between the English and American 

 forms of the common brake ; and no 

 one can pronounce them to be speci- 

 fically distinct. There is scarcely any 

 part of the world where we may not 

 find forms of Pteris as closely related 

 to our own as is the American Pteris, 

 and that rarest of British species, 

 Adiantum capillus veneris, has a geo- 

 graphical range extending so far and 

 wide that it may be said to be un- 

 known only at the poles and the tro- 

 pics. In aspects and homologies there 

 are some very strong relationships 

 between the British ferns and the 

 ferns of all kinds in all other parts 

 of the globe. The lovely film ferns 

 of the islands of the antarctic seas 

 are represented by Hymenophyllum 

 Tunbridgense and Trichomanes radi- 

 cans. The grand Hymenodium cri- 

 nitum, and the nearly grand Pleopeltis 

 membranacea, have a representative 



in the hart's tongue of the hedge- 

 rows. It is fortunate that we have 

 one native species of Adiantum to 

 establish relationships with all the 

 rest, for in this family the delicate 

 grace and delicious colouring common 

 to ferns has its culminating point, and 

 Adiantum cuneatum is perhaps the 

 loveliest of all ferns known. The 

 tree ferns are not badly represented 

 in our common brake, and especially 

 when this is seen under pot culture, 

 for it then attains to much more mag- 

 nificent dimensions, and has an almost 

 palm- like dignity, such as is but 

 dimly shown, or rather suggested, by 

 its forms when growing wild, though 

 in the hedgerows and the woods it is 

 one of the most glorious of all the 

 works of the Creator. The noble 

 Lomarias of the stove have their re- 

 presentative out of doors in Blechnum 

 spicant. The Goniophlebiums, Phle- 

 bodiums,Niphobolus, and Goniopteris 

 are all well represented in our home 

 Polypodies; andourOsmundas stand 

 for a whole batch of exotic flowering 

 ferns, from Anemidictyon phyllitidis, 

 a little gem for the fern case, to Stru- 

 thiopteris Germanica, the noblest 

 hardy fern known. 



There are about fifty species of 

 British ferns, the whole of which it 

 is possible to collect and cultivate. 

 But there are also at least GOO varie- 

 ties or kinds that differ more or less in 

 structure and aspect from the sup- 

 posed specific forms to which they 

 are directly related. It is perhaps a 



