THE FLORAL WOELD AND GAEDEN aUIDE. 271 



among the species of wliicli, there are some very pretty and useful 

 varieties. A. adiantum nigrum acutum is a capital little sport to 

 grow iu Wardiau cases, so is A. lanceolatum microdon, with the 

 tongvie-like terniioations of its pretty fronds. Asplenium marinutn 

 is one of the very best of British ferns to grow under glass cases, and 

 has a very distinct and rich appearance when its deep green fronds 

 are covered with ripe fruit. Some years ago we had from Mr. Sim 

 a vigorous upright-growing variety called alatum, and the very best 

 form possible for a case, because it never sprawls over towards the 

 light. This form is not entered in the present list, but we find 

 ramosum, a branched variety, and ramo-trapeziforme, with overlapping 

 divisions, which make beautiful specimens under glass. A. tricho- 

 manes, which thrives so admirably m dry positions out of doors, and 

 which we used to find, years ago, in almost fabulous quantity on an 

 old wall at Blackheath, offers a whole series of varieties, the best of 

 which are cristatura and inciso-lobatum. 



Of the Lady Fern, Athyrium filix foemina presents us in this list 

 with no fewer than fifty-eight varieties, and the reader curious to 

 know something of them must refer to the catalogue direct. But 

 we can recommend as distinct and beautiful the following: — com- 

 positum, which has tasselled, peaked, and depauperated fronds all 

 mixed together, and no two alike on the whole plant ; conioides, with 

 lance-shaped fronds, and overlapping crispy pinnules, here and there 

 forked ; this makes a grand specimen ; coronans, whicli is crowned 

 with crispy crests ; corymbiferum, a well-known vigorous-growing 

 and finely-crested variety ; diffissum, of small growth, very curiously 

 toothed; Fieldife and Frizellia^, the two most curious of all, both 

 with narrow tapering fronds, the first with rachial pinnules of all 

 shapes and sizes, but all arranged in the style of serpents' teeth, with 

 the toothed divisions pointing backward, the second with arching 

 fronds beset their whole length with small fan-shaped neatly-toothed 

 divisions. Glrandiceps is a magnificent crested and branched fern, 

 well adapted for exiubition; multifidum has all the original grace of 

 the species, and pretty tassels added from top to toe ; ramo-cristatum, 

 one of Mr. Sim's sports, produces some fronds, like Lastrea f. m. 

 cristata, and others branched and tufted, and is a very beautiful 

 novelty. Grrandiceps is a remarkable variety, on which some remarks 

 were made last month. 



Of Blechnum spicant, the beautiful Hard Fern of our coppices, 

 there are sixteen varieties enumerated, all of them striking in 

 character, and keeping true to the rich deep green, firm texture, 

 grace, and gloss of the species. The best of them are-concinnum, 

 with overlapping lobes, tapering to a point ; imbricatum, overlapping 

 and crowded, and remarkably distinct in character ; multifurcatum, 

 nearly prostrate, with many forked terminations, very curious and 

 beautiful ; ramosum, the ends of the fronds repeatedly branching, 

 and the branches crested, the best of the series. 



Cystopteris fragilis, the Bladder Pern, is a beauty in every stage 

 of natural or abnormal growth, and when in fruit, and seen 

 between the eye and the light, one of the loveliest objects in nature. 

 Among its few varieties we recommend angustata, which grows taller 



