December 24, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



623 



now have a few winter-blooming tuberous kinds with showy 

 Mowers. John Heal and Adonis are the best known of these. 

 The former is said not to be a good grower. Triomphe de 

 Lemoine is a hybrid from B. Socolrana and is a vigorous variety. 

 This has already been figured in Garden and Forest. B. 

 Socotrana has also given a hybrid with B. insignis named 

 Bijou, which I find is a satisfactory kind with twiggy stems, 

 prostrate habit and bright magenta flowers. B. incarnata 

 is an established favorite among the winter -flowering 

 kinds, and the French have given us a few varieties of this 

 varying in color of flowers. Of these M. Crousse, M. Choner, 

 M. Ed. Pynaert and M. Vallerand are the best. 



The Semperflorens type are perhaps the most useful Be- 

 gonias for flowers, being, as implied by name, very free bloom- 

 ers. The varieties of this are very numerous, and the flow- 

 ers range in colorfrom white, through pink to deepest carmine. 

 Some of the most useful varieties are Elegans, Bruanti, Luci- 

 anas and Bajocensis. 



A strain with more vigorous, taller habit and larger leaves 

 is B. semperflorens gigantea, very useful for back rows and 

 producing large racemes of fair sized flowers. The best of 

 these are Odorata (Dr. Nachtigal), Amelia, Rosea andCarminea. 



that a wider distribution of some of the kinds noted above 

 would increase the interest of many growers whose attention 

 had not been called to them. 

 Elizabeth, N.j. J.X. Gerard. 



Filmy Ferns. 

 HTHE exceptional interest and charm of the Filmy Ferns, both 

 ■*■ as objects of study and as ornamental plants, is generally 

 recognized. Botanically they have always received considera- 

 ble attention on account of their special structure, which differs 

 so markedly from that of the rest of the Ferns that some au- 

 thors have separated them into a sub-order. Their vegetative 

 peculiarities are being specially studied by more than one bot- 

 anist in England at the present time. Horticulturists are 

 attracted to them by the elegance and delicacy of their fronds, 

 and their cultivation is a special hobby with several amateurs, 

 while a few of the species, such as Todea superba and the Kil- 

 larney Fern [Trie ho manes radicans), are grown among Ferns 

 generally. There are, however, a considerable number of 

 beautiful species, known to and cultivated by a few special- 

 ists, which are quite as easy to manage as those already named, 

 and, in fact, may be grown under precisely similar conditions 



Lettuce in a Forcing-house. — See page 622. 



Among the more striking of newer Begonias Paul Bruant is 

 probably the best. A vigorous variety, with deep cut light 

 olive leaves, with toothed edges and bearing a great profusion 

 of light rose flowers in racemes. M. de Lesseps is in the way of 

 Argentea guttata with larger, darker leaves. Of older varieties, 

 Mr. Barker has already called attention in Garden and Forest 

 to B. manicata and B. manic ata anrea (the variegated variety), 

 very useful kinds, which in mid-winter fairly burst into blos- 

 som with numerous racemes of small pink flowers. B.Gibsoni, 

 of course, must be noted as quite indispensable with its rosy 

 blooms partly doubled, and among a host of olderfavorites are 

 Compta, with pink stems, satiny green leaves and a silvery 

 tinge along the mid-rib ; Decora; with dark green silver- 

 marked leaves ; Argentea guttata, which some one has called 

 Angels' Wings; and its wing-like silver dotted leaves bear out 

 the name very well. But space forbids even naming many 

 established favorites whose various charms and strange forms 

 make these plants so interesting. Among the varieties one 

 may find kinds simulating in foliage other plants of widely 

 divergent habits, and even an annual species, B. Schmidtii, 

 self-sown seedlings of which are continually appearing in all 

 available spaces. Their habits are nearly as diverse as their 

 foliage. Among them are dwarfs and giants, plants stiffly 

 upright and scaudent, and all intermediate forms with strongly 

 marked periods of growth and rest in many cases. 



Every one who cultivates flowers has a few much appre- 

 ciated Begonias and they are no novelties; but it would seem 



with the Killarney Fern and the New Zealand Todeas. It is 

 probable that many have avoided Filmy Ferns from a belief 

 that they could only be grown where conditions of a very 

 special character were provided. This belief is supported by 

 the miserable health of Filmy Ferns in many gardens where 

 their cultivation is attempted. Failure in these cases is, as a 

 rule, obviously the result of ignorance of two very simple, but 

 vital, factors in the healthy growth of these plants — namely, 

 moisture and ample drainage. Filmy Ferns detest lime; they 

 should, therefore, be watered with rain-water. As a rule, they 

 dislike watering overhead, although the atmosphere about 

 them should be kept constantly saturated. They will not 

 thrive if planted in heavy or close soil. Peat fibre and pieces of 

 soft sandstone, or even a bare piece of sandstone alone, or a 

 piece of soft P'ern-stem, afford the most suitable material for 

 their roots and creeping rhizomes to cling to. If they are to be 

 grown in pots and covered with bell-glasses, then the whole of 

 the pot should be filled with drainage, upon which a little 

 mound may be built with peat-fibre and sandstone. The 

 plants should then be fastened onto this by means of wooden, 

 not wire, pegs. To water plants thus treated, dipping the pot 

 up to the rim in water or pouring water over the bell-glass so 

 that it will run down into the pot, answers very well. If a frame 

 can be afforded for Filmy Ferns alone the preparation in re- 

 gard to drainage and soil should be similar to that recom- 

 mended for pots. The surface of the soil may be varied by 

 raising some parts higher than others by the free use of sand- 



