FLOWERING FERNS 39 



usually included with the stove species, will succeed in 

 the greenhouse. 



Of those which require stove treatment A. collina is 

 one of the most desirable. The stipes and surface of the 

 fronds are densely clothed with short brownish hairs. A. 

 rotundifolia is remarkably distinct, and at first sight reminds 

 one of Adiantum lunulatum. The drooping pinnate fronds 

 have an elongated extremity from which young plants 

 are produced. The fertile portion is produced in the 

 same manner a*- the other Anemias ; the fronds have a 

 bronzy-brown tint when young. This should be grown 

 suspended, and young plants may be established from 

 the bulbs at the extremities of the fronds, which may 

 be rooted into small pots before severing them from the 

 parent plant. A. Dregiana is a pretty, small-growing 

 species with woolly fronds ; the fertile portion is not 

 quite so much extended as in most species. There are 

 several other species which are not often met with under 

 cultivation. This may be due to the fact that they 

 rarely live for more than two or three years, and require 

 treating as annuals. 



OSMUNDAS. These are nearly all deciduous, and in 

 most of them the fructifications are on the terminal 

 pinnae of the fronds. The largest species is our native 

 Royal Fern, 0. regalis. In this the fronds attain in size 

 according to age. They may have fertile fronds when 

 not more than fifteen to eighteen inches high, but older 

 specimens grow to three or four feet, and form a hard, 

 woody trunk. The North American O. gracilis varies 

 very much in size, and also in the colour of its fronds. 

 Among imported plants, we find some of a soft green, 

 and others with dark rachis and stipes and a red tint on 

 the young fronds. This is described as growing luxuri- 

 ously in swampy places, where it covers large tracts of 

 land. A friend, writing, speaks of it as being seen as 

 abundant in North America, as our Bracken is here in 



