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GEEENHOUSE AND HAEDY ADIANTUMS. 



[N every garden now we meet with Adian turns ; in the 

 poor man's garden there is an attempt made to grow the 

 lovely A. capillus veneris, the British maidenhair, which 

 needs only shade, and moisture, and shelter from wind 

 and frost, to attain to the most perfect luxuriance. In 

 gardens where collections of plants are grown under glass, and espe- 

 cially where exhibition subjects meet with attention, adiantums are 

 sure to be plentiful. Very much might be said on this lovely family 

 of ferns, but an endeavour will be made in this paper to compress a 

 considerable amount of information in a comparatively small compass. 

 The Adiantums belong to the Pteris section of the filices, 

 and are, as regards the nature of the indusium, congeners with 

 Cheilanthes, Platyloma, Pteris, Lomaria, and AVoodwardia. In all 

 the species of Adiantum, the sori are disposed on the margin of the 

 pinnae, sometimes in a continuous line, but usually interrupted. The 

 veins of the pinnae are usually forked and radiating, the fronds are 

 mostly smooth, and have a peculiar power of repelling moisture. 

 The stipes and rachis are mostly purplish or black, very slender, and a 

 peculiar family likeness prevails amongst the members of the genus, 

 by which they may be readily recognized as adiantums, though it 

 may not be at all times easy to determine the species. 



The cultivation of these ferns is, generally speaking, very simple, 

 but there are exceptions. Some are difficult to keep through the 

 winter, and some require peculiar care at all times. But there are 

 certain peculiarities of constitution common to them all. They love 

 shade and moisture, are soon injured, and even killed by sunshine, 

 rough wind, or drought. Some few, such as tenerum, will submit 

 to occasional hardships w'ithout suffering seriously. Yet the powers 

 of endurance of this are circumscribed by narrow limits, and it never 

 attains to its proper beauty except when sheltered, shaded, and kept 

 constantly moist. There is no better soil for this class of ferns than 

 good fibrous peat and silver sand, with more or less of broken stone 

 added. It is best in every case to avoid the admixture with the 

 compost of loam, leaf-mould, or other substitutes for peat, but sand 

 may be largely used if free from lime and iron, and several of the 

 species will grow luxuriantly amongst damp bricks or on damp stone 

 without any other soil at all. ;This is especially the case with the 

 British maidenhair, which really does better without soil than with 

 it, though it may be grown to a fine condition in the usual mixture of 

 peat and sand. 



The adiantums do not generally root deep, and the pots employed 

 for growing specimens are usually objectionably tall ; shallow^ pans 

 are far preferable to pots when it is intended to bestow particular 

 care on a few specimens, with a view to grow them to a large size. 

 Our exhibition specimens are grown in pots which have been made 

 for the purpose, at my own suggestion, by Messrs. Adams, Brothers, 

 of the Kilns, at Belle Isle, King's Cross, London. These pots are 

 extra stout, made of the best clay, and very carefully burnt, and 



