24 FERNS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



a few of the more striking of these, together with 

 the countries in which they are found, in order to 

 draw the attention of some of our enterprising nursery- 

 men to them and induce them to take steps for their 

 introduction. Assuredly in this fern-loving age 

 many would prove of great commercial value. First, 

 there is the magnificent Matonia jpectinata, found 

 only on Mount Ophir, in Malacca ; a Pern resembling 

 the Gleichenias in habit, hut rising to a height of five 

 or six feet, with beautiful fronds, divided, like those of 

 fan-palms, into numerous pectinate segments. Two 

 other Ferns of much the same habit, the Dipteris 

 Wallichii and ~D. Horsfieldii, are likewise worthy a place 

 in our gardens. The former of these is found in the 

 mountains of Silhet, and the latter in Java, Borneo, 

 the Philippines, Fiji, and neighbouring islands. In 

 the Philippine Islands, where the Fern Flora has about 

 250 representatives, there are numerous fine species, 

 such as Dryostachium sjplendens and Aglaomorplia 

 Meyeniana, both somewhat resembling Drynaria quer- 

 cifolia in the general aspect and mode of growth of 

 their barren fronds, both having rhizomes equally 

 tenacious of life; Loma gramme pteroides, with large 

 pinnate fronds three feet high, having long linear, 

 lanceolate articulate pinnae, bearing amorphous sori; 

 Phoiinopteris Horsfieldii, the glistening sterile fronds 

 of which are pinnate and between two and three feet 

 high, and have very broad elliptic-lanceolate pinnas, 

 similar to the common laurel, while the fertile ones 

 are very much contracted; Gleichenia excelsa, a very 

 btrong- growing species with fronds five or six feet high, 

 having spreading pinnae two to three feet in length. 

 The beautiful Schizoccena Brunonis of Penang and 



