THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



Microlepia Hirta Cristata. 



tember or October have made fine plants, 

 and have sent out such an abundance of 

 stolons that at intervals, or when you 

 lift, you will get a number of young 

 plants, which can be potted up, or if 

 a larger stock is needed, replanted. 

 There is no doubt a much larger plant 

 of any of the nephrolepis can be ob 

 tained in a short time by planting out 

 than if grown in a pot, and they lift 

 wijh a mass of roots perfectly, without 

 losing a single frond. Yet specialists 

 growing these nephrolepis into medium 

 sized specimens prefer growing them en 

 tirely in pots, at least from a 3 -inch or 

 4-inch size. 



Few of the commercial sorts are pro 

 liferous on the leafy frond, but those 

 that are lend themselves to propagation 

 most easily, as described in the remarks 

 on that class. 



Some species that grow in tufts, 

 such as Adiantum cuneatum, the com 

 mon maidenhair, can be divided. The 

 crown should be cut carefully and then 

 the roots pulled apart. Cuneatum, or 

 any particular form of it, is often in 

 creased by division, and sterile species, 

 of which the most beautiful of all, A. 

 Farleyense, is one, can only be propa 

 gated by division. This should be done 

 in early spring, when the plants are in 



Lygodium scandens would hardly be 

 thought a fern, and Platycerium alci- 

 corne, the well-known stag s horn fern, 

 differs widely from our usual idea of 

 ferns. The Acrostichum crinitum of the 

 West Indies must be a remarkable look 

 ing plant, for its shape and texture gives 

 it the name of the elephant s ear. 

 There are some species that, but for 

 their so-called fruit, bear no resemblance 

 to the ferns or entitle them to rank 

 with the order. 



As curious objects for the fernery or 

 conservatory, they have their place, but 

 that is not in the precincts of the com 

 mercial man. But think of the thousands 

 of forms we have that are strange, 

 grotesque, beautiful, graceful, some 

 creeping on wet, cold rocks like a tracery 

 of fine lace, and some of the family rear 

 ing their plumed heads 100 feet high 

 in the tropical forest, inhabitants of the 

 earth in the dark ages of the dim past, 

 contemporaries, perhaps, of the giant 

 horse tails that formed our coal, sur 

 viving the glacial period. All kindred 

 because the reproduction of the species 

 is the same in all. 



Propagation. 



Those that have surface rhizomes 

 such as the davallias and some of the 

 adiantums (Capillus-Veneris is one), are 

 easily and quickly divided. A rhizome 

 that has run out and thrown up a few- 

 fronds will have also made some roots 

 and can be severed from the parent plant 

 and potted. Never overpot ferns. It 

 is true that some of the stronger grow 

 ing kinds, especially the pteris, soon get 

 root-bound, and then want larger pots, 

 but the great majority of ferns do not 

 need so much pot room, but they always 

 want good drainage, so that water can 

 pass freely through. 



Platycerium Alcicornc. 



Those that have stolons or 

 ground rhizomes, such as the nephrolepis, 

 are most easy of- all to -multiply, young 

 plants often coming 1?, at th^%side of 

 the pot and on the aerial roots, the young 

 plants appearing at intervals. In June, 

 when your bedding plants are gone, 

 select a bench that will let the water 

 through freely, and in four or five inches 

 of soil plant out young plants from 

 2-inch or 3-inch pots. They will by Sep- 



.most cases resting and before the young 

 growth is made, but can by care be 

 done at any season. 



Just here it is worthy of mention 

 that this beautiful fern, A. Farleyense, 

 is usually thought to be a sterile form 

 of A. tenerum, but there is no definite 

 knowledge about it, and the millions 

 of plants now existing, or that have ex 

 isted, all came from one plant found 

 growing on Farley Hills, in the Island 



