FERNS AND PERN CASES. 



UR last notes on this subject appeared at page 241 of the 

 volume for 1865. We have now completely given up 

 the use of hot water, and all the case ferns are subjected 

 to cool treatment. This answers far better than could 

 have been anticipated. It seems as if the most tender 

 stove fern would bear with equanimity the temperature of a case of 

 large size without artificial aid ; and it must be remembered that 

 the larger the case, the more equable is its temperature within, ri^ng 

 slowly to the maximum of the air without, and in like manner falling 

 slowly to the minimum. I have already enumerated some sixty fine 

 ferns that are admirably adapted for cases, and I re-open the subject 

 by referring to 



Pleopeltis membeaxacea. — This is understood to be one of the 

 most tender ferns in cultivation, and it is undoubtedly one of the 

 most beautiful. There is not one in the collection that bears cool 

 treatment more patiently than this, and it makes fronds annually, 

 measuring eighteen to twenty-four inches in length. The growth 

 of last year, in a 48-sized pot, continued quite green until destroyed 

 by the frost of January last, when, in spite of covering the bed- 

 room case with carpets, three or four degrees of frost got in. This 

 fern has a slowly creeping rhizoma, from which proceed entire, thin, 

 nearly stalkless fronds of a most delicate membranaceous texture. 

 When seen against the light, they are pellucid, and of a delicate 

 green colour, and not much unlike, in colour and texture, the leaf of 

 a lettuce. When the fruit appears, the fronds are highly orna- 

 mental, the sori being disposed in regular rows, and of a bright 

 orange colour. Unfortunately, the artist took, by mistake, a couple 

 of barren fronds for the annexed sketch, which would have been far 

 more effective if one of them had been in fruit. 



Pleopeltis teeminalis is a first-rate case fern, and merits par- 

 ticular attention from possessors of good cases, for it takes the same 

 place in the case that Drijnaria querclfolia and Tleopeltis phyviatodes 

 do in the stove. Its shining, deep green, eh-gintly-cut fronds 

 render it very distinct, and it forms a most beautiful specimen. 



Pleopeltis lycopodioides. — A pretty little fern, with creep- 

 ing rhizomas and small strap-shaped fronds, of a glossy deep green. 

 It is one of the best for planting in a cocoa-nut shell for suspending. 



Pleopeltis pustulata. — A small fern ; some of the fronds 

 divided into half-inch wide tapering divisions ; others entire, and 

 strap-shaped. It extends rapidly by its creeping rhizomas, and 

 needs but little care. 



ToDEA hymenophylloides. — This much-prized and most deli- 

 cately-constituted fern is unquestionably one of the best that can be 

 planted in a case. It loves the close moist air, the subdued light, 

 the equable temperature, and the perfect stillness. I have lately 

 parted with a plant which has a stem a foot high, and which I 

 estimated to be fully one hundred years of age. It is a tree fern, 

 but at the utmost makes but a small tree. When put in stove 



