THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 65 



POLYSTICHUM LONCHITIS. 



flOLYSTICHTJM LONCHITIS, the Alpine shield fern, 

 or holly fern, is seldom seen growing wild by fern 

 cultivators, on account of its peculiarly local and moun- 

 tain habit, growing, as it does, at an elevation of one 

 thousand to three thousand feet. It also ranks amongst 

 our rarer British ferns, with us being only found in the fissures of 

 rocks near the summits of the highest and bleakest mountains of 

 our country. It is a native of Europe, generally extending even as 

 far north as Lapland and Iceland. It is found also in North 

 America, Kamtschatka, and Asia Minor. 



The bleak, cold, exposed situations in which Polystichum lon- 

 chitis grows proclaim this fern to be the most hardy of the British 

 species. It is an evergreen species. Its fronds are exceedingly 

 rigid, and well calculated to resist the blast of those exposed moun- 

 tains on which it luxuriates. The length of the frond is usually 

 from six to eighteen inches, occasionally longer ; the colour, deep 

 green above, paler beneath. The fructification is mostly confined 

 to the upper half of the frond, the sori being situated in a line on 

 either side of the mid- vein, about midway between the mid- vein and 

 the margin. 



The mountain travellers occasionally meet with this plant in 

 places difficult of access, and even where accessible, frequently most 

 difficult to be removed from its native wilds. It is usually seen in 

 perfection in September and October. 



HAEDT AND ORNAMENTAL SPRING-FLOWERING 



SHRUBS. 



[HIMONANTHUS PRAGRANS and C. Grandiflorus. 

 — Though these are not, strictly speaking, spring 

 flowering plants, yet, from their value and interest in 

 mid-winter, they are worthy of notice here, forming, as 

 they do, a connecting link with plants which succeed 

 them. They are, as is well known, adapted for wall culture, and 

 are the only winter-dowering hardy shrubs that possess fragraut 

 flowers ; they therefore deserve a place in every garden. The 

 blossoms are principally produced on ripened laterals and branches 

 of the current year's growth, and fertility in these is encouraged by 

 pruning the shoots back (but sparingly), until a proportionate 

 number of flower-bearing branches is formed. In replenishing a 

 lady's portable flower-basket, or a drawing-room artistic flower-vase, 

 during the late autumn and spring months, they are worthy of a 

 place with the forced flowers of the season, as hyacinths, lily of the 

 valley, violets, etc. 



Jasminum nudiflorum. — Besides boing well adapted for early 



March. 5 



