BENEDICT: NEW VARIETIES OF NEPHROLEPIS 211 
3. Conditions under which Nephrolepis varieties have originated 
It is suggested in the preceding paragraph that cultural condi- 
tions may be responsible in some degree for the development or 
preservation of so many new varieties. Two points are of special 
interest in connection with the cultural conditions: first, the fact 
that these are probably generally the optimum for these ferns; 
second, the very large numbers of individual plants raised each 
year. 
For soil, the florist uses a good loam or leaf mould with at least 
one half to equal amounts of rotted manure. In one case the mix- 
ture used consists of one part sand to five parts rotted manure, 
leaf mould; and humus. New plants are propagated from stock 
plants which are planted out in long benches in shallow soil. A 
single stock plant may produce nearly one hundred runners, as the 
young plants are called, in a single year. These new plants develop 
from slender stolons which spring from the parent plant close to or 
connected with the leaf bases, and penetrate the soil in all direc- 
tions. Each runner may produce a considerable number of buds as 
wellas roots. It is worthy of present note that these stolons serve 
not only for reproduction but also as agents in the nourishment 
of the parent plant, at least until the secondary plants have 
attained some size. The main point to be noted in connection 
with the methods of propagation aside from the quality of the soil, 
etc., is the freedom of growth which is given the stock plants and 
their progeny in the early stages. The plants after potting are 
sometimes further fed with liquid fertilizer of some sort. They 
are grown in low-roofed houses with absence of draft, and usually 
with no other kinds of plants which might desire slightly different 
conditions. If variation is in any way connected with vigorous 
growth, there is every reason why these ferns should vary. ie 
With respect to the number of plants grown per annum, it is 
hard to estimate in what will appear a conservative manner. 
I have talked with two growers who claimed to sell three and four 
hundred thousand small plants every year and there seemed to be 
noreason why they should be exaggerating. There are undoubtedly 
half a dozen florists in the eastern states who raise over one hundred 
thousand plants each year, and a larger number who produce 
fifty thousand. The number who grow fifteen to twenty thousand 
