FEATHER FERNS 653 
cool greenhouse, where its thin-textured fronds are less likely to be 
shrivelled by wind or drought. These species are readily propagated by 
dividing the rootstock. 
Description of Onoclea germanica, the Ostrich Fern,reduced. The lines 
Plate 307. under the figure should describe it as “one-third natural size,” 
but the “one-third” has been inadvertently omitted. The upper portions 
of both fertile and sterile fronds are shown. Fig. 1 is an enlarged 
representation of part of a pinna, showing the sori and their involucres. 
FEATHER FERNS 
Natural Order Finices. Genus Pteris 
Preris (the old Greek for Ferns, from pteron, a feather or wing, in allusion 
to the plumy appearance of the frond). A genus of about eighty-three 
species of stove, greenhouse, and hardy Ferns. As there is no popular 
term generally applied to this genus, we have called them by the 
English of the generic name, although this savours of tautology. There 
is great variation of habit in this genus, but the rootstock is usually 
creeping, the veins of the frond forked or netted, the sori in continuous 
lines under the curled-back edge of the frond, with which the involucre 
is united. They are distributed widely over all the Regions of the 
earth; one only, the Bracken, Pieris aquilina, being British. 
Our common Bracken, Pteris aqguilina, has a very 
extensive history, for it has played an important part in 
Folk-lore and popular superstition; but its chief connection with 
gardens has consisted in the use of its fronds as a handy packing material 
for fruit and plants. There is no evidence of foreign species of Pteris 
being grown here prior to 1770. In that year Mr. James Gordon 
brought P. longifolia from the West Indies, and in the same year 
P. serrulata came from India. Eight years later Mr. Francis Masson 
introduced P. arguta, from Madeira. An important period in the 
cultivation of Pteris appears to have been about the year 1820. Then 
came the familiar P. cretica, from Crete; P. heterophylla, from the West 
Indies; and P. tremula, from Australia. Next year came P. palmata, 
from Caraccas, in 1824 P. leptophylla, from Brazil, whence also came 
P. saggitifolia, a year later. 
PTERIS ARGUTA (sharp-notched). Rhizome creeping, 
covered with dark-brown scales. Stipes erect, 1 foot long, 
yellow or brown. Fronds 1 to 3 feet long, 1 foot across, thin-textured 
wee 12. 
History. 
Principal Species. 
