THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. oU 



be taken up or protected. A good plan is to shift it into as large a 

 pot as it is likely to fill in the month of April, and in May plunge it 

 in a shady bank or some sheltered nook of the rockery. Its tine 

 form and character entitle it to the higliest consideration. 



LoMAKiA Chilenscs. — A bold, once-divided, leathery-fronded 

 fern ; a fine companion to Cyrtomium falcatum. Not quite hardy, 

 but lives out a mild winter. When strong, the fronds acquire a 

 length of four feet. 



LoMARiA MagellaisIca. — Fine and distinct ; not quite hardy, 

 but nearly so. 



OSMUNDA CIXNAMOMEA, 0. ClATTOXIA^^A, O. GRACILIS. — All 



hardy as our own 0. regalis, and lovely ferns for the shady and damp 

 parts of a rockery. 



PoLYSTiCHu:\i ACROSTOCHOiDES. — A fine companion to Lomaria 

 Chilensis ; the fronds bold, dark green and glossy, and of a leathery 

 texture. It is evergreen under glass, but deciduous when planted 

 out, as the first frost destroys the fronds, but the crown may be kept 

 by covering it. 



PoLYSTiCHUM PUKGENS. — A Ycry fine species, rising two feet 

 high, quite a Polystichum in style. Not quite hardy, but nearly so. 



iStruthiopteeis G-ermanica. — This is the glorious "ostrich- 

 feather fern." The fronds form a correct shuttlecock-like series 

 round the crown, and the fruit rises on a separate stalk in the 

 centre. It is reputed to be quite hardy, and perhaps is so ; but it 

 is not at all adapted for an out-door fern, and I have never seen it 

 looking well in an open-air rockery. If exposed to wind the fronds 

 get torn, and if they escape being torn, they are sure to turn brown 

 by Midsummer-day. Therefore I advise that it never be planted out 

 until the cultivator has a few plants to spare, and is prepared to see 

 them all spoilt, with the chance of a better result than others have 

 attained with it. 



Wood WARD lA radicals. — What a grand fern is this, and how 

 badly is it treated ! Because it will live on almost nothing, very 

 few cultivators treat it liberally. I know about fifty plants that 

 have been kept in the small pots and baskets for years without any 

 change of soil, with their roots cramped so much that their living is 

 like a miracle. I beg tlie readers of the Ploral World to treat 

 this majestic fern in a liberal manner, to give it plenty of pot room, 

 and a soil consisting of at least three parts mellow hazel loam, the 

 remainder peat and sharp grit. To get up fine specimens, they 

 should have a shift every spring to a larger-size pot, and from the 

 largest pots to tubs, and so on for ever, the end of the shifting to be 

 at that point where the lifting of the plant becomes a matter of 

 difficulty. The roots may be pruned back as freely as the roots of a 

 geranium, if they have gone down among the crocks, and have become 

 unmanageable for the next shift. AVheu in a twelve-inch pot, with 

 good soil rammed in firm, the plant will produce fronds six feet in 

 length. To propagate, the best way is to peg down three or four of 

 the bulbs which form at the end of the fronds in a pot filled with 

 sandy peat, and when they are well rooted, cut through the frond 

 that holds them, and separate- them. Keep them one year in the 



