THE 



FLORICULTURAL CABINET, 



JUNE 1st, 1835. 



PART I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



ARTICLE I. — Observations on Foreign Ferns, particu- 

 larly as to their Propagation by Seeds. No. I. By 

 J. R. 



In some papers upon " British Ferns," which appeared in the 

 Floricultural Cabinet for February, March, and April, 1834, a 

 hope was expressed, that some of your correspondents would favour 

 us with their suggestions on the cultivation and propagation of 

 Ferns: but no one having continued the subject, I beg to offer 

 you my mite of information, in return for the pleasure and im- 

 provement I have derived from the various matters in your Cabi- 

 net ; and, as an amateur, collector, and cultivator of the Ferns, 

 British and foreign, I shall be much obliged to any of your friends 

 who will favour us with their remarks on this interesting class. 



Ferns, though flowerless, are interesting, from their form, the 

 variety of their growth and propagation, and in some instances 

 from their utility : though, in this favoured country, their useful- 

 ness is superseded by more valuable substitutes, and in the im- 

 proved practice of Medicine, they are excluded from our Pharma- 

 copoeia. Some, as the Polypodium vulgar*, contain mucilage and 

 saccharine matter, besides an astringent extractive matter, in which 

 I lie acid predominates. Others contain essential oil, as the 

 Pleris nemoralis, the stalk of which, on being rubbed, yields a 

 powerful scent : tannin is also contained in Ferns, the roots of 

 Atpidium fdise femina, A. aculeatum, &c. being used in some 

 VOL. III. R 



