148 THE FLORAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



moderately fruitful. Marginatum (7) is in all the catalogues, the fronds 

 are scarcely an inch wide, uniform in width throughout, texture rough 

 like the last, regularlj- crenulated, and underneath there is a skin-like line 

 which breaks out into seed-bearing excrescences. It is very handsome, and 

 makes a fine specimen cither in pot or planted out. MuUifidum is worth 

 having, but less so than others we have named. The fronds are like the 

 species, but their points expand into three forks, flat and spi'eading. 

 This, however, varies much, and to see all that it is capable of you must 

 plant it out and wait till it gets old, then it will often amuse you with its 

 eccentricities. Grenulatum is a very fine variety of robust habit, and 

 richly waved on the margin. Angustatum grows tall and erect, with nar- 

 rowisli fronds elegantly waved throughout, and is very beautiful, though 

 not very curious. Polysclddes introduces us to the class of diminutive 

 Scolopcndriums. Here we have narrow, dark green fronds, deeply and 

 irregularly notched. 



Prolifcrum is a diminutive of marginatum, growing less than two inches 

 high, and the fronds often awl-shaped, or consisting of the rachis only, 

 others slightly expanded, and bearing little plants ; this requires a \qvj 

 damp, shady place, and best in the open air. Vivo-marginatum (6) is the 

 most curious of all these diminutive kinds ; the tiny fronds are sometimes 

 denticulate their whole length ; others divide at the summit into three 

 or four horns, and they are all of a dark green hue ; it is quite a curiosity, 

 and very interesting. If these are not enough for a selection, I shall add 

 Cornutum, of which I have a fine plant, very dwarf, coriaceous, with 

 crenate and undulated fronds, which terminate abruptly; this is diminutive, 

 and the colour a very dark, bluish green. Laceratum is one of the 

 grandest of all, the fronds broad and frilled their whole length, and at the 

 summit spreading into a fine frilled fan, which sometimes assumes most 

 elegant cycloid outlines. Take also Digitatum, which has the stipes 

 branched, and the fronds ending in broad, flat fans of great size ; Fis&um, a 

 large edition of polyschides, with deep marginal clefts, and very luxuriant 

 in habit ; Macrosorum between marginatum and polyschides, slightly 

 branching, and the colour a rich deep green ; Rugosu))i with pouched 

 fronds and deejjly-cut margins, and with spines on the midrib ; Birnarginato 

 midtijidum, with raised veins, forming pocket-like holes on the surface, 

 and the point of each frond twice forked, and terminating in multifid 

 fans ; and lastly Glomeratum, which grows for a short length like the species, 

 then breaks out into a dense globular mass of divisions three or four 

 inches in diameter, one of the most elegant and remarkable of the whole 

 of this strange fiunily. 



• You will gather from these notes that we use these monsters for shady 

 rockeries out of doors and rockeries under glass, as well as for pot speci- 

 mens. But I must tell you that my better half, who is an inveterate 

 fern fancier, has them planted in Pickard cases, and they seem to like the 

 close atmosphere of those contrivances as much as any fern so managed. 

 But the newest of all the contrivances for fern culture has recently been 

 appropriated to the diminutive varieties. Messrs. Kosher, of Kingsland 

 Iload Wharf, JST.E., are offering pretty pillars of porous clay, which are 

 fitted with small shell-like projections for the reception of ferns, and in 

 one of these we have a very pretty collection of the smaller kinds of 

 Scolopendrium varieties under a large bell-glass, and they are doing 

 remarkably well. These fern pillars have been exhibited at the Eegent's 



