CULTIVATION. 357 



part having been introduced from Guiana by Mr. 

 Backhouse, of York, and on account of their slow 

 increase, plants of them are yet very rare : they are 

 natives of generally the lower regions of tropical vege- 

 tation, growing in open places amongst herbage of 

 small plants and grass, or on the skirts of woods, and 

 sometimes under the shade of trees, the soil being 

 very poor, sometimes almost nothing but sand or 

 stony debris, in which their sarmentums are partially 

 hypogeous, the soil and air never being much below 

 the temperature of 80, and although almost daily 

 subject to the influence of tropical thunder-showers, 

 yet, on account of the nature of the soil, the surface is 

 never over saturated. Finding that they do not flourish 

 under the medium temperature of a Tropical Fern House, 

 it therefore is necessary that a special part of the house, 

 on the principle of a Wardian Case, should be adapted, 

 so that a moist air of 80 may be steadily maintained, 

 and the plants occasionally sprinkled overhead, taking 

 care that no superfluity remain in the soil, which 

 should be no more than moist. 



Like Lindscea, the curious and interesting genus 

 Schizcea does not readily conform to cultivation; 

 plants of Schizcea elegans have often been freely im- 

 ported from Trinidad, and although tried in various 

 ways in high and moderate temperatures, it cannot be 

 said they have yet become established. Under the 

 Wardian Case, the native imported fronds remain for 

 a considerable time fresh, and sometimes new fronds 

 show themselves, but fail to come to maturity. In a 

 letter lately received from Mr. Prestoe, in Trinidad, he 

 informs me that the Schizcea elegans grows in solitary 

 patches in loamy soil, covered with three or four 



