BRITISH FERNS 



Fig. 256. Pteris aquilana (part of pinna). 



being rolled back so as to form an indusium, or protecting cover. 

 P. aquilina has a fleshy, travelling, underground rootstock, which 

 sometimes penetrates very deeply into the soil, and produces its 

 fronds at a considerable distance from each other. As a result 

 of this, it is all but impossible to remove a plant successfully in the 

 growing season, and the only way is to lift it in the winter, by 

 digging up a good mass of soil pervaded by these rootstocks, and 

 without disturbing them by breaking the mass, drop the latter 

 en bloc into a peaty station provided where a plant is desired. 

 The spores, however, germinate very freely, and the resulting plants 

 rapidly assume a good size, so that where valuable varieties are 

 concerned they are easily propagated in this way. Curiously enough, 

 however, despite its reputed hardiness, and wide distribution as a 

 hardy plant, in the seedling state hard frost is often fatal, especially 

 if the youngsters have been raised under glass. We have been 

 successful in raising very fine varieties from spores in small pans, 

 and transferring them to the garden by sinking the pans containing 

 young plants with five or six inch long fronds, into prepared peaty 

 stations in the late summer, at a depth permitting a mulch of about 

 two or three inches of similar soil. The travelling rootstocks will 

 then climb over the pan edges, and plunge into the adjacent soil 

 sufficiently deep to be safe during the winter, and the following 

 season they will establish themselves so strongly as to commence 

 to exercise their usual monopolizing tendency at the expense of 

 the plants in the vicinity. We have seen splendid specimens 

 grown in sunken tubs, which have been adopted to check such 

 invasions. Obviously, indoor culture for so robust a Fern is a 

 mistake, nor should it be installed outside unless there is ample 

 room for it to spread. An exception to this remark is P aq. congesta, 

 which see. The most marked varieties are : — 



Congesta. — A very beautiful, densely congested form, which 

 grows about two feet high and travels very slowly ; is adapted, 

 therefore, for pan culture ; a gem. 



Crispa. — This thick, dark green, leathery, crispy form is, as we 

 have said above, not uncommon in association with the normal ; 

 it is very pretty. 



