THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



93 



Pteris Victoriae. 



and wiser mind than mine who inspect 

 ed these plants daily, and when I now 

 read today of the most approved meth 

 ods of culture of these wonderful ferns 

 I can see that the house of forty 

 years ago and their treatment was about 

 right. 



They are now seldom grown, but an 

 ardent lover of ferns would surely like 

 to have them under his care. Briefly 

 then, the principal fact to realize is 

 that wherever found their surround 

 ings are charged with moisture : Light 

 they have, but never the direct rays 

 of the sun. Most of them have surface 

 rhizomes and they need little soil, which 

 can be broken up peat, chopped 

 sphagnum and pounded up bricks or 

 broken crocks. Moisture at the roots 

 they want at all times anu an atmos 

 phere charged with moisture, but no 

 syringing overhead. A dry, cutting 

 draught, even in the greenhouse, would 

 soon destroy them. The British spe 

 cies will withstand a temperature far 

 below freezing, and the species from 

 India and the West Indies, as weil as 

 those from China, Tasmania and Xe\\ 

 Zealand, are found at high elevations. 

 The hymenophyllums forming a green 

 matting over constantly wet rocks. 



A low temperature, shade and mois 

 ture are the essentials to success with 

 these beautiful ferns, which the com 

 mercial florist Avill let severely alone. 



Class 9. Viviparous and Proliferous Ferns. 



This peculiar class includes many 

 species of many different genera. While 

 in some genera of this class only two 

 or three species are represented, in others 

 they predominate. The large genus as- 



plenium is of the latter. This class is 

 known from its curious way of multi 

 plying or reproducing its species. 



They are again divided into classes 

 from *the manner or disposition of the 

 bulbils. Two of the best known ferns 

 that are viviparous are Asplenium bul- 

 biferum and Aspidium angulare pro- 



laying the whole leaf on the surface 

 of some pan of suitable soil where the 

 young plants soon root and can be after 

 wards potted. 



Another class has this proliferous 

 character extending only to the stalk 

 of the frond. Another class has but 

 a single bulbil growing at the tip or 

 end of the frond. And there is yet an 

 other which is classed as proliferous, 

 but in a very different way from the 

 other three. This includes the inval 

 uable genus nephrolepis, and * its pro 

 liferous character enables us to propa 

 gate it with such ease, and is also the 

 cause of its being such a splendid bas 

 ket fern. The nephrolepis have long, 

 wiry stolons or underground rhizomes 

 provided with latent buds which are con 

 stantly sending up fronds and forming 

 young plants. As we all know, to sever 

 this wiry rhizome or stolon from the par 

 ent plant is not felt by either, so our 

 stock of the Boston fern and other 

 nephrolepis is most rapidly increased by 

 planting out medium sized plants in four 

 or five inches of soil during summer. 

 Besides those mentioned there are a num 

 ber of viviparous or proliferous ferns, 

 many of them highly interesting and 

 handsome, but not desirable to the plant 

 grower. These are adiantum, gymno- 

 gramme, marattia, nephrodium, platy- 

 cerium, poly podium, pteris, scolopen- 

 drium, woodwardia and others; all have 

 several representatives in this curious 

 hen-and-chickens-like class. 



Class 10. Curious Ferns. 



This last division includes only what 

 is strange, striking, peculiar, or a species 

 that is very unlike the great majority 

 of ferns, but the author I have so liber- 



Cyrtomium Falcatum. 



liferum. We constantly see these in 

 every place where ferns are grown. 

 These have the bulbils or little plants 

 scattered over the upper surface of the 

 leaf, and are most readily increased by 

 ckt.-u-liing the young plant and potting or 



ally quoted does not include any of the 

 crested, or what he calls malformed, 

 varieties of originally elegant species. 

 I l;, species lie selects for this class are 

 so unlike ferns in appearance that they 

 are not readily taken for ferns. The 



