320 FERNS I BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



bunches of grass, as also the remarkable Opliioglossum 

 pendulum, which may be likened to ribands or bands 

 hanging loose and waving with the wind, often many 

 feet in length. These plants succeed in a small 

 quantity of soil, firmly fixed in pots, with pieces of 

 soft stone or potsherds, and the pot hung against a 

 shady wall or pillar. For this purpose the pot should 

 have a flat back, with the front rim lower than the 

 back, so as to allow the fronds to hang quite free of 

 the pot. 



Neottopteris Australasica, and a few Aspleniums 

 nearly allied, such as A.sinuatum and A. crenulatum, 

 of precisely the same mode of growth, are of erect 

 fasciculate vernation. Their roots being of peculiar 

 mossy and delicate nature, they are not adapted 

 for deep insinuation of stiff soil, but are rather 

 what may be termed aerial. Two-thirds of their 

 mass is produced above the surface of the soil. 

 Substantial but open material is therefore required, 

 of very rough, fibry peat, and porous, broken bricks, 

 or soft sandstone, in equal parts ; very little pot- 

 room is necessary; a shallow pot of 18 inches 

 diameter, with such material, will support a plant 

 of two dozen fronds, and none less than 3 feet 

 6 inches long and 8 inches broad, with a stem a foot 

 high, and as much through, principally composed of 

 its mossy roots forming a spongy mass. As an 

 instance of the long life under regular treatment may 

 be cited the original plant of Neottopteris Australasica, 

 which was imported in 1825, and is now (1864) a 

 magnificent plant, in perfect health, having received 

 but few shifts the whole of the forty years. 



This is, however, far surpassed in size by the mag- 



