350 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



CULTURAL HINTS ON TODEA SUPERBA. 



Most Ferns are beautiful, some are supremely so. Adiantum Farleyense 

 counts an admirer in every one who looks upon its pretty cut leaflets, 

 pendent, in clusters, on hair-like branchlets so fine as to require near 

 inspection to discern their presence. So charmingly airy, and yet so 

 fragile, does the whole plant appear, that one at once concludes that a 

 breath of dry or chilly air would wither up its greenness. 



The soft luxuriant aspect of a healthy Todea superba, while in growth, 

 also engenders similar impressions in the mind of the beholder, although 

 we are aware of its comparative hardiness. Any further description of 

 this Fern is indeed difficult to encounter, nor shall we venture to 

 detail more than what is superficial. 



The likest object that I can select to illustrate or represent T. 

 superba in form, is that of a huge rosette. Imagine such, built up by 

 a series of layers of elegantly curved, lanceolate, mossy plumes, beauti- 

 fully crisp, semitransparent, the pinnse a brisk green, densely compact, 

 and so placed on edge along the rachis as to impart in some degree the 

 likeness of a piece of green velvet to the fronds. These rich distinctions, 

 adding the various shades exhibited in the fronds of difi'erent ages, which 

 range from bright pea in the young to the deepest green in the old, 

 give T. superba a beauty entirely its own. 



Modes of Culture. — This Fern is generally considered and treated as 

 a greenhouse species, and grown under such conditions excellent speci- 

 mens are found ; but I have noticed invariably such plants present a 

 hard harsh look in winter ; at all events, they are in a great measure 

 void of that delicate hue which is so attractive, and is constantly pre- 

 sent on plants wintered in a few degrees higher temperature. Besides 

 this, another advantage follows the latter mode — that is, an additional 

 growth to the plant in the year is secured ; and this, so far as my 

 experience goes, without hurt to the constitution of the plant. I have 

 also discovered that they throw up fronds more vigorous and numerous 

 in winter than those produced in the height of summer, and that the 

 plants have a stronger inclination for rest in summer than any other 

 period of the year. As an example, last season our only plant of 

 superba came to a state of inactivity at the end of June, after having 

 matured a course of fronds: this state continued on to the end of 

 August, when fresh signs of active growth appeared. The plant 

 during this season of rest stood inside a case in a cool green- 

 house among some plants of T. pellucida and Hymenophyllums ; 

 on seeing fresh fronds appearing, I had the plant placed in its quar- 

 ters in the stove, as I intended it for competition in September, and of 

 course the crest of young fronds would much enhance its value. The 



