116 STENOCHL^NA MEYERIANA. 



A MOST interesting, free-growing, climbing Fern, whicli, to 

 grow well, requires to be placed in a large pot, and trained 

 up a piece of timber, as the creeping rhizoma will take root 

 in the wood, and flourish much better under these conditions 

 than when simply grown as a pot-plant. A straight branch 

 of oak, six feet in length, and about eight inches in diameter, 

 if secured in the pot in which the Fern is growing, is a con- 

 venient method of producing a good specimen. 



An evergreen stove species. 



Native of the East Indies and Malayan Islands. 



Introduced into the Royal Gardens, Kew, in the year 1841, 

 having been procured from the Royal Botanic Gardens of 

 Berlin. 



Mr. Moore, in his "Genera and Species of Cultivated Ferns," 

 remarks, "that although cultivated as far back as 1840, he 

 is not aware that it has produced any fructification except at 

 "Wentworth." Mr. Henderson, gardener to Earl Fitzwilliam, 

 has kindly supplied me with the fertile portion of a frond, 

 which is figured in this work. I have myself a large healthy 

 plant, yet it has shewn no signs of bearing fertile fronds. 



Fronds of two kinds. The sterile frond, which is glabrous 

 and shining, is pinnate, the pinnae being linear-acuminate, 

 somewhat membranous, with a serrated cartilaginous margin, 

 wedge-shaped at the base, and about twelve inches in length. 



Fronds usually pendulous. 



Veins simple or forked, and parallel, being joined together 

 at the base by arcuate costal veins, which form a row of 

 long narrow areoles close to the midrib. 



Fertile fronds bipinnate, the pinnee being from six to eight 

 inches in length. The pinnules linear, narrow, and sporangif- 

 erous on their under surface. 



Rhizoma slender, green, creeping, and covered with long 

 narrow scales. 



Fronds lateral. 



Length from thirty-five to fifty inches; colour brilliant green. 



The wood-cut illustration on the opposite page seems to 

 be a distinct species, but I have only seen a small barren 

 frond. It is the StenochlcBtia tenuifolia of Moore. 



My obligations are due to Mr. Stratton, of the Cambridge 

 Botanic Gardens, for a plant of this Fern; and to Messrs. 



