120 Subtropical Gardening. 



rank, and the small select garden without any of the 

 above-mentioned appendages will certainly be better 

 without it. For the botanical garden and curious col- 

 lections it is indispensable. It is strong and lasting 

 when well established, and may be allowed to trail over 

 rough places, stumps, or similar positions. The flowers 

 have a rather strong odour of violets, and are succeeded 

 by roundish fruit, the size of a small orange, of a 

 deep green colour barred and speckled with white. 

 Requires a deep, light soil, and a warm but airy posi- 

 tion. Seedlings and plants in exposed places should 

 be covered in winter with litter or leaves. It is easily 

 multiplied in spring by division of the young tuberous 

 stems, or by sowing in light, substantial, well-drained 

 soil from April to July, or in pots in a lukewarm hotbed 

 in March and April. It has not, so far as I am aware, 

 fruited in our climate. 



Cyathea dealbata. — This very handsome fern, known 

 in N. Zealand as the Silver Tree-fern, has a slender, 

 branched, almost black stem, 4 ft. to 8 ft. high, ending 

 in a fine crown of broadly-oblong twice-divided fronds 

 of a dark green colour above and milk-white below ; the 

 rachis and midribs when young are covered with brown 

 scales, and afterwards with pale deciduous down. This 

 plant may be placed in the open air, in the southern and 

 milder districts, during the summer months from the end 

 of May till the end of September. 



Cycas revoluta. — A graceful and well-known plant, 

 with a very stout stem, sometimes, though rarely, reach- 

 ing a height of from 6 ft. to 10 ft., from the top of 

 which issues a beautiful crown of dark green pinnate 



