FERNS. 



153 



creeping slender rhizomes are densely clothed with 

 adpressed silvery scales, which ai-e particularly con- 

 spicuous when the plant is grown upon a tree-fern 

 stem. The cojnhination of colour formed hy the 

 silvery scales of the rhizome, the reddish stipe, and 

 the dark gi-een fronds is very pleasing. This species 

 is a neat grower of moderate size, the fronds not ex- 

 ceeding eight inches or a foot in height. 



recommended below. A good plan is to have a 

 shallow pan of the required size, place an inverted 

 pot in the centre (larger than the depth of the pan), 

 and after putting in drainage, fill up and round the 

 pot with pieces of peat or a mixture of peat and 

 sphagnum, fastening the whole together into a 

 rounded cone hy means of wire. The creeping 

 rhizomes should then he placed on the surface, at- 



Davallia Fijiessis. 



Cultivation. — All the DavaUias are especially im- 

 patient of stagnant moisture, and thrive heft in a 

 thoroughly drained compost ; almost any scil will 

 suit many of them, if the drainage requirements — 

 the most essential of all conditions — are attended to. 

 Either pxire fihrous peat, peat and leaf-mould, or the 

 latter with an admixture of silver sand or charcoal, 

 win do. Of course the larger, stronger growers are 

 not so particular, and succeed well in pots; the 

 smaller ones, and more especially those with slender 

 rhizomes, should either he grown in baskets or as 



taohing them hy pegs or small pieces of wire. With 

 a plentiful supply of water — and in a properly 

 prepared pan there is scarcely any danger of 

 over-watering, in the growing season, at any rate — 

 growth soon commences, and the rhizomes soon form 

 a network over the entire surface. During winter 

 water should be more sparingly administered, care, 

 however, being taken never to let the pots or pans 

 become dry. A fairly light place, if somewhat near 

 the glass so much the better, is appreciated by m&si 

 of the Davallias. 



