248 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



cause less finely divided, but also 

 different in the contour of its fronds, 

 the width of which decreases towards 

 the base, whereas in the Lady-fern 

 the frond is widest at the base. It is 

 rather scarce in Britain, being con- 

 fined to a few localities in the High- 

 lands of Scotland, but it is widely- 

 dispersed over Europe, especially in 

 the mountainous regions of Norway, 

 Sweden, Lapland, and Switzerland. 

 It is, as might be expected, very 

 hardy, and it bears exposure well, 

 though it has more beauty when mo- 

 derately shaded. I have some fine 

 tufts planted in deep pockets near 

 the base of the bastion, where they 

 are completely shaded from the sun, 

 and are planted in the common loam 

 of the place, tempered with a small 

 admixture of the dust of broken 

 crocks. It is a good pot-fern, and 

 excellent to grow in quantities for 

 grouping in jardinets and rustic 

 baskets. It cannot be increased ra- 

 pidly except by seeds. If propagated 

 by division, the cultivator must wait 

 till it has formed several distinct 

 crowns, which at the end of the sea- 

 son may be separated with a por- 

 tion of root to each. These should 

 be potted in small pots, well-drained 

 and filled with sandy peat, and when 



the fronds begin to rise iu spring, 

 they may be planted out where they 

 are to remain, or be shifted to larger 

 pots. If planted in the rockery im- 

 mediately after division, some of them 

 may perish during the winter. 



There are a few beautiful varieties 

 of tbis fern. V. flexile is of slender 

 form, and more flaccid than the 

 species. V. lanceum has large stout 

 fronds, and the pinnules are deeply 

 pinnatifid with obtuse serrated seg- 

 ments. V. trijrinnatum has large, 

 stout, tripinnate fronds, pinnules an 

 inch or more in length, with oblong 

 secondary pinnules. 



Polypodium vulgare semilacerum. 

 — Two years ago, a frond, with a mere 

 scrap of rhizome attached, was sent 

 to me with other ferns to be named. 

 It had been some days in the letter 

 before it was seen, but, being still 

 tolerably fresh, it was carefully potted 

 and shut up in a cold frame. In due 

 time it began to throw up fronds, and 

 it is now a grand plant filling an 

 eight-inch pot. It is a lovely fern, 

 and occasions no trouble as a pot 

 plant. I have never grown it out of 

 doors. For notes on other varieties 

 of P. vulgare, see Floeal "Wobld, 

 1864, p. 49. 



THE CKOCTJS. 



The best way to use crocuses in beds 

 and borders, is in clumps of five to 

 ten bulbs of one colour to each clump. 

 A magnificent effect may be produced 

 by marking off a border in three lines, 

 and planting in those lines clumps 

 of yellow, white, and blue respec- 

 tively. A long straight border would 

 look best in four lines, white being the 

 boundary on each side, and yellow 

 and blue side by side between them. 

 To do justice to crocuses the soil 

 should be sandy, deep, and rich, and 

 they should remain undisturbed 

 for three years. They should then 

 be taken up, divided, and replanted. 

 They increase rapidly, and in the 

 course of a few years every part of 

 the garden may be furnished with 



them, even if there be but compara- 

 tively few to begin with in the first 

 instance. It is the planting them too 

 late, in bad soil, and in spring 

 chopping their leaves and bulbs about 

 — a feat in which jobbing gardeners 

 are very anxious for distinction — that 

 must be taken account of in consider- 

 ing the causes of degeneracy or the 

 total disappearance of crocuses from 

 gardens where they were once plentiful. 

 When grown in pots they form 

 charming decorative objects for the 

 drawing-room, and as the best of the 

 named sorts serve admirably for this 

 purpose, there is the additional enjoy- 

 ment of seeing the best forms and 

 colours which have been produced in 

 crocus flowers. 



