THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 241 



which about a peck of peat and loam was put ia for it at the foot of 

 a wall, which forms part of a " moclera ruin" in my garden. In this 

 position it is completely shaded, and it now and then gets a little 

 water, but rather by accident than rule. The spot is, however, 

 naturally damp, and the plant forms a luxuriant tuft, and is in a 

 very convenient position to furnish cut fronds for the embellishment 

 of vases and epergnes, when filled with flowers. As a pot plant it 

 is well worthy of care, and will attain to its fullest perfection if 

 kept in a frame all winter, and in summer on a border under the 

 shade of trees. It may, indeed, be left out of doors all winter with 

 other hardy ferns, if plunged to the rim in coal-ashes ; and it is a 

 good plan not to cut the old fronds away until the new ones begin 

 to start in spring, as they serve in some degree to protect the crown. 

 When wintered in a frame or pit, it grows earlier in the spring than 

 ■when left out all winter. I have never known this fern to perish, 

 even if kept without water for weeks together in the summer ; but 

 such treatment completely destroys its beauty, and if it is not 

 regularly watered, both over the fronds and at the root, it has not a 

 single attraction for a lover of the beautiful, except perhaps the 

 attraction of sympathy and regret for its forlorn condition. In a 

 fern case, the typical form and all its varieties thrive, especially while 

 young. Generally speaking, they grow too robust after one year's 

 residence in the case, and then have a tendency to become rusty. 

 With care, however, any of them may be kept in cases, and some of 

 the smaller varieties are well adapted for such a purpose, on account 

 of their neatness and singular characters. 



There are between sixty and seventy varieties in cultivation, 

 most of Vihich I possess. They make elegant pot plants, and the 

 more robust habited are fine subjects for the front of a shaded 

 rockery. The best of them for a limited collection are the 

 following : — 



Conioides. — Bold, spreading, broad, pointed fronds, pinnules 

 crowded and overlapping, and elegantly crisped ; very distinct and 

 fine. 



Goronans. — Small in growth, almost diminutive ; the fronds 

 short, each primary division ending in a neat crispy crest, the terminal 

 crests vertical to the plane of the frond, and therefore conspicuous. 

 Fine for pots and cases. 



Coronatum. — K minute variety, with a greatly developed forked 

 crispy tuft terminating every frond, the pinnae being also forked and 

 crisped. It is well named, as every frond is truly crowned. Fine 

 for pots and cases. 



Cori/mhiferum. — Mr. Sim sent me a plant of this some years ago, 

 when it was a novelty, and that plant has been the parent of 

 hundreds, having been many times divided. It is of free, bold habit, 

 growing as robust as the type, all the pinnae being crested, and the 

 fronds terminating in crispy crests, which vary somewhat, but are 

 always handsome. 



Crispum.- — One of the very best of the smallest growing kinds, 

 forming a dense, bushy, and parsley-like mass, the fronds narrow 

 and regularly tasselled, the colour a very pale lively green. I have 



TOL. I. — NO. YIII, 16 



