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H E T I C U L T U E E 



September 27, 1913 



POLYPODIUM MANDAIANUM GOES FORTH 



POLYPODIUM MaXDAIAMM. 



An event of more than passing inter- 

 est is the distribution of the noble 

 fern, Polypodium Mandaianum, which 

 commenced this week at the green- 

 houses of W. A. Manda at South Or- 

 ange, N. J. This remarkable fern has 

 been in Mr. Manda's possession for 

 over ten years, during which time he 

 has been dividing and multiplying it 

 assiduously until now the stock 

 amounts to about 25,000 plants, large 

 and small. Since the announcement of 

 the high honors awarded to this plant 

 at home and abroad, orders have been 

 coming in fast and practically every 

 salable plant is sold in advance. Mr. 

 Manda expects it will take at least two 

 weeks to pack and deliver the stock. 

 Every plant is packed as though going 

 to an exhibition, each individual frond 

 being tied several times to an upright 

 stake and the greatest care being exer- 

 cised to insure its delivery in perfect 

 coildition. Mr. Manda's affection is so 

 bound up in this plant that we honest- 

 ly believe he feels at heart deep regret 

 at seeing it go out. 



The beautiful fronds of Polypodium 



Mandaianum, laciniated. crimped and 

 undulated in the most charming man- 

 ner, have a place of their own as cut 

 foliage in decorative work. No other 

 green can rival its effect and the tex- 

 ture is so firm that it lasts in cut state 

 for many weeks without changing. The 

 plant thrives best in shallow pots or 

 pans, being a surface grower, and 

 seems to be equally happy if merely 

 attached to a clump of osmunda fibre 

 and suspended against the greenhouse 

 wall, where water seems to be its only 

 requirement for robust growth. Know- 

 ing this, the enormous size of the 

 fronds and their remarkable substance 

 is all the more astonishing. 



The houses filled with the plants 

 have been a sight worth seeing. A 

 specimen at the head of the houses has 

 a spread of ten feet. Others fastened 

 to the top of dead tree-fern stems seem 

 perfectly at home and form stately 

 standards, while large clumps hang on 

 the walls in the manner of stag's horn 

 ferns. 



While on the subject we might men- 

 tion another fern which impressed us 



on a recent visit to South Orange, as 

 a valuable acquisition. It is a sport 

 from Nephrolepis tuberosa which origi- 

 nated with Mr. Manda and has been 

 named plumosa. The fronds are long, 

 narrow and arched, the tips of the 

 pinnae being beautifuUIy plumose and 

 of a pale green which makes a strik- 

 ing contrast with the very dark color 

 of the rest of the frond. This seems 

 to be a tougher fern than the various 

 well-known forms of N. exaltata and 

 although the plants grow quite dense 

 in the centre indiscriminate watering 

 does not discolor or otherwise unfavor- 

 ably affect the fronds. 



Of Anthericum Mandaianum, Intro- 

 duced not long since by Mr. Manda, 

 its only drawback seems to be that it 

 propagates too fast. Anybody can get 

 up a big stock of it in no time. It is 

 strongly variegated and the leaves are 

 very tough — not brittle as in the old, 

 well-known, Anthericum variegatum. 

 This plant received an award of merit 

 in England and was also one of the 

 group of twelve new and rare plants 

 which won the first prize at the Lon- 

 don International, last year. 



