THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



Nephrolepis Exaltata Bostoniensis. 



While in some genera of this class 

 only two or three species are repre- 

 sented, in others they predominate. 

 The large genus asplenium is of the 

 latter. This class is known from 

 their curious way of multiplying or 

 reproducing their 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 

 bulbiferum and Aspidium angulare 

 proliferum. 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 

 detaching the young plant and potting 

 or laying the whole leaf on the surface 

 of some pan of suitable soil where the 

 young plants soon root and can be aft- 

 erwards 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 

 constantly sending up fronds and 

 forming young plants. As we all 

 know, to sever this wiry rhizome or 

 stolon from the parent plant is not 

 felt by either, so our stock of the Bos- 

 ton fern and other nephrolepis is most 

 rapidly increased by planting out me- 

 dium sized plants in four or five inch- 

 es of soil during summer. Besides 

 those mentioned there are a number of 



viviparous or proliferous ferns, many 

 of them highly interesting and hand- 

 some, but not desirable to the plant 

 grower. These are adiautum, gymno- 

 gramme, marattia, nephrodium, platy- 

 cerium, polypodium, pteris, scolopen- 

 drium, woodwardia and others; all 

 have several representatives in this 

 curious hen and chickens-like class. 



Class JO. Curious Ferns. 



This last division includes only what 

 is strange, striking, peculiar, or a spe- 

 cies that is very unlike the great ma- 

 jority of ferns, but the author I have 

 so liberally quoted does not include 

 any of the crested, or what he calls 

 mal-formed, varieties of originally ele- 

 gant species. The species he selects for 

 this class are so unlike ferns in ap- 

 pearance that they are not readily 

 taken for ferns. The Lygodium scan- 

 dens would hardly be thought a fern, 

 and Platycerium alcicorne, the well- 

 known stag's horn fern, differs widely 

 from our usual idea of ferns. The 

 Acrostichum crinitum of the West In- 

 dies must be a remarkable looking 

 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 resem- 

 blance 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 

 commercial 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 rearing their plumed heads 100 

 feet high in the tropical forest, inhabi- 

 tants of the earth in the dark ages of 

 the dim past, contemporaries, perhaps, 

 of the giant horse tails that formed 

 our coal, surviving the glacial period. 



Nephrolepis Rufescens Tripinnatifida. 



