October io, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



405 



I suppose, is to let them have their host plants, but here 

 the difficulty arises, what the host is being often hypo- 

 thetical. 



Pteris longifolia, var. Mariesi. — This is a very elegant 

 variety of one of the commonest and most useful of garden 

 Ferns. It has been introduced by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, 

 who have exhibited it several times this year, and it has 

 been awarded several certificates. It differs from the type 

 in having the pinnse very narrow and closer together ; this 

 gives the fronds a much more elegant and pleasing appear- 



remarkable Fern have lately been received at Kew from 

 Mr. Curtis, of Malacca, and they are now likely to become 

 established in cultivation for the first time, I believe. The 

 genus was merged in Polypodium by Hooker & Baker in 

 their Synopsis Filicum, but it has since been restored by 

 Mr. Baker, who places it next to Dicksonia and Diparia. 

 Five species have been described, all natives of Malasia. 

 They are remarkable in having a thick, shapeless rhizome, 

 which clings to the branches of trees and in time forms a 

 thick crust around the branch, one specimen at Kew hav- 



F g. 64. — White Ash (Fraxinus Americana) in Pennsylvania. — See page 40.?. 



ance than the ordinary P. longifolia has. In all other re- 

 spects it is like the latter, growing just as freely and rapidly 

 under ordinary conditions. P. longifolia is a weed in most 

 ferneries. At Kew it sows itself on brick walls, under 

 stages, in fact, anywhere where the spores can find lodge- 

 ment, and the plants grow sturdily with no further suste- 

 nance than the moisture and what can be got from bricks 

 and mortar. If the new variety will be as accommodating 

 it is certain to be welcomed by all owners of greenhouses. 

 Lecanopteris carnosa. — Fine living examples of this very 



ing a crust six inches thick entirely surrounding a'piece of 

 tree branch. These rhizomes grow over each other, and 

 they are glaucous green when young, brown-black when 

 old, and covered with mammi-like projections, which mark 

 the points where the pinnate fronds were attached. The 

 old rhizome is of leathery texture, and it is galleried inside 

 like the myrmecophilous Hydnophytums and Myrmeco- 

 dias which inhabit the same region. Mr. Curtis suggests 

 that the ants are probably necessary to the welfare of the 

 plant, as every specimen he found was the abode of my- 



