302 THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 
DAVALLIA. Including Odontosoria and Synaphlebium. 
When grown in either pots or pans, Davallias that are 
provided with rhizomes require to be a little elevated above 
the rim of the pot, as nothing is more injurious to them 
than to haye their rhizomes buried in the soil, especially the 
species whose rhizomes are clothed with large, chaffy scales. 
Most of them are averse to heavy or close soil, and delight 
in a compost of three parts fibrous peat, one part chopped 
sphagnum—or, better still, good leaf-mould—and one part 
silver-sand, with thorough drainage and an abundant supply 
of water at the roots during the growing season. During 
winter they must be watered sparingly, never allowing 
even deciduous kinds to become quite dry. The plants 
must not be syringed overhead; but they delight in being 
kept near the glass. Propagation in the case of those 
species not producing rhizomes is by spores, sown in heat. 
Where Davallias like dissecta, bullata, and Marieswi are 
required in quantity they are best raised from spores. As 
soon as the seedlings have produced a rhizome 2in. long, this 
latter is repeatedly pruned, which tends to make compact, 
bushy plants. 
Many Davallias require special treatment. D. alpina is 
one. This requires a warm temperature and moist atmo- 
sphere, but without overhead syringing, and to be grown on 
a pyramid of fibrous peat. D. bullata is one of the most 
useful species in cultivation, succeeding equally well in stove 
or in greenhouse, and making a very fine specimen, whether 
grown in a shallow pan of good dimensions, on a pyramid of 
peat, or on a vertical piece of cork or Tree-Fern stem, where 
the rhizomes have plenty of 100m for extension. The 
Hare’s-foot Fern (D. canariensis) (Fig. 319) is a very 
ornamental and interesting species, useful for either pots 
or for planting on rockwork. Its popular name is derived 
from the fact that its prostrate stems, which are covered 
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Fic. 318. DAVALLIA ANGUSTATA. 
with pale-brown chaffy scales, have a very close 
resemblance to the feet of a hare. It also succeeds well 
under greenhouse treatment, and is an excellent plant 
for rooms. D. divaricata (Fig. 320) is best accommodated 
on a projecting rock in the warm Fernery. It is a shallow- 
rooting plant, requiring but a few inches of soil to develop 
itself to perfection, and on that account may easily be 
grown on the trunk of a dead Tree-Fern. D. angustata 
(Fig. 318) is a singular little stove species found upon 
Trees in its native country. 
As basket subjects, Davallias are in the first rank. 
Some of the best are D. Mariesii (Fig. 322), D. fijiensis and 
its forms (all of which like peat), D. canariensis, D. immersa, 
D. hirsuta, D. marginalis, D. retusa, and D. bullata. Some- 
times D. hirsuta may be accommodated upon the rockery, 
when it should be placed upon a prominent piece of rock to 
allow its rhizomes full development. D. hirta cristata is one 
of the strong-growing Davallias which should for preference 
be grown in fibrous peat and sand only; it is also one of 
those which suffer most from insufficiency of water at the 
Davallia—continued. 
roots at any time of the year. The whole plant is slightly 
hairy, and on that account should never be watered over- 
head. It very seldom produces fertile fronds, and is there- 
fore generally increased by division of the crowns in the 
early part of the year. . 
D. pallida is a very attractive species, but its chief merit 
lies in the fact that it forms a large specimen in a 
comparatively small pot. Highly decorative, too, and 
easily grown, is D. tenuifolia, but the soil in which it is 
planted must not contain loam. D. parvula, although it 
grows only a few inches high, is attractive on account of 
the neatness of its habit. It requires only a very shallow 
pan, and great care must be taken to keep the whole of the 
rhizomes aboye ground. D. platyphylla makes an 
exceedingly handsome specimen when grown in a pot, but it 
progresses still more rapidly when planted in a substantial 
compost in the rockery, where an abundance of water can 
be allowed it during the summer. Another species suited to 
the rockery is the graceful D. strigosa; it requires but 
little soil. For growing upon a tree-trunk D. heterophylla 
is exceedingly adapted, being a surface-rooter. 
D. parallela (Fig. 323) is a minute stove species, which 
in habit and size resembles our native Polypody. 
To the species described on pp. 445-7, Vol. I., the following 
should be added : 
D. aculeata (prickly). rhiz. creeping, stout, fibrillose. sti. 
(including rachis) 4ft. to 6ft. long, strong, scandent, spinose- 
flexuose. fronds tripinnatifid ; lower pinne lft. to 1}ft. long, 4in. 
to 6in. broad, ovate-lanceolate ; pinnules lanceolate, 2in. to 3in. 
long, lin. broad; segments Jin. broad, cuneate, deeply two- to 
four-lobed. sori small, cup-shaped, terminal. West Indies. 
Stove. Syn. Stenoloma aculeata. 
D. assamica (Assam). j;hiz. stout, wide-creeping, densely 
clothed with light brown scales. sti. naked, lin. to 3in. long. 
Sronds 6in. to 12in. long, spear-shaped, tripinnatifid; pinne 
shortly stalked ; pinnules crowded, naked on both surfaces. sori 
disposed close to the margins of the ultimate lobes ; involucres as 
broad as deep. Bhotan. Stove. SyNs. Acrophorus assamicus, 
Leucostegia assamica. 
D. brachycarpa (short-fruited). A form of D. gibberosa. 
Fig. 319, DAVALLIA CANARIENSIS. 
D. ciliata (ciliated). rhiz. creeping, densely covered with soft, 
brown hairs. _ sti. firm, erect, 3in. to 4in. long, hairy. fronds 1ft. 
to 1}ft. long, 6in. to Yin. bread, spear-shaped, tripinnatifid, thin 
and papery, the rachis and under-surface softly hairy. sort very 
small, disposed two to twelve ina pinnule, and placed near the 
centre of the teeth near the base. Philippine Islands. Stove. 
(H. S. F. i., p. 184, t. 604.) Syn. Microlepia ciliata. 
D. cristata (crested). A synonym of C. strigosa. 
D. elata (tall). A form of D. elegans. 
D. elegans polydactyla (many-fingered). This differs from the 
type in the many-fingered, dilated apex of the frond, and of the 
pinne, which are all multifidly divided or crested in such a 
manner as to give the plant an extremely ornamental character. 
882. 
D. epiphylla (upon a leaf). This species has fronds more 
coriaceous than in D. elegans, more finely-divided segments, very 
smal\ sori, and sharp teeth protruded considerably beyond them. 
Java and the Malayan Peninsula. Stove. 
eee 
