ASPLENIUM GERMANICUM. 13 



plants in 1854, on a precipice near Scaw-fell, and that it 

 had been collected near Llanrwst, and in the Pass of Llanberis; 

 yet it seems doubtful whether it exists in above one or two 

 of these localities at the present time. On the continent it is 

 sparingly seen growing in the crevices of rocks and walls in 

 Hungary, Sweden, Germany, France, and Italy. Mr. T. B. 

 Charlton found this species on a loose stone wall at the village 

 of Airolo, near the foot of St. Gothard, Pass of the Alps on the 

 Italian side, growing on a south or south-west aspect: it was 

 not in great abundance. In the same locality A. septentrionale 

 was very abundant. 



A. Germanicum should be planted among fragments of free- 

 stone, peat, and decayed vegetable mould in small quantities: 

 good drainage, and only moderate watering is essential. 



A. Germanicum being so scarce in the collections of Fern 

 cultivators in Great Britain, few growers would like to risk 

 their solitary specimens of this treasure in the open air, to 

 the influence of a winter's frost. Mr. Charlton, however, having 

 brought half-a-dozen or more examples from the Alps, and 

 without being perhaps aware that he had secured a more than 

 ordinarily rare Fern, hazarded three or four plants in his 

 Fernery, at Chilweli Hall. Being anxious to know whether 

 they survived the great cold of the severe winter of 1855, 

 inquiry was made, and Mr. Charlton informed me that all his 

 plants were alive; and, although those in a cold-frame were 

 more thriving than those planted in the open air, still the 

 latter grew tolerably well. So severe a test as that of the 

 past winter, completely establishes the fact that A, Germanicum 

 will grow in the open air under cultivation. 



The Fern growers of our British species will doubtless 

 welcome this information; for if a plant will survive a degree 

 of frost sufficiently intense to destroy many usually hardy trees, 

 such as the Holly, Laurel, Arbutus, etc., that plant may with 

 truth be said to be quite hardy; and as winters as severe as 

 the one which we experienced in February and March, 1855, 

 are of very unfrequent occurrence in this island, there can be 

 but little danger in hazarding the present species in our open- 

 air Ferneries. 



I am indebted to T. B. Charlton, Esq., Chilweli Hall, Not- 

 tinghamshire; and to Messrs. A. Henderson, of the Pine-apple 



