Ferns for Window Gardeners. 107 



Some of the varieties of this Fern are very beautiful 

 and curious. Crispum has the margins of the fronds 

 greatly developed, giving them a rich wavy crisped 

 appearance. There are numerous other varieties, such 

 as polyschides, muUifidum, laceratum, and ramo-margi- 

 natum (see illustration), all worthy your attention and 

 very suitable. 



Trichomanes radicans, or European Bristle Fern, is 

 a very lovely and elegant little plant of a delicate half 

 transparent texture, found only upon dripping rocks in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of waterfalls. It has a 

 scaly wirelike creeping stem, nearly black in colour, 

 from which the fronds rise supported by dark-looking 

 stipes, having a thin pellucid texture or continuation 

 of the leafy parts embracing them continued along the 

 rachis or midrib. The fronds are three or four times 

 divided, and cut again into small-lobed segments of a 

 delicately thin semi-membranous texture. 



It is only found in Ireland, where it creeps and 

 grows most luxuriantly among the rocks where constant 

 moisture is maintained. In cultivation the same moist 

 'atmosphere must be kept up. It can only be grown 

 therefore by being kept close in a Wardian case, or 

 under a bell-glass, and often watered overhead. It 

 shrivels up if it gets dry or exposed to the sun. Its 

 transparent loveliness has made it a great favourite with 

 cultivators. 



Woodsea Ilvensis, or Alpine woodsia, is a tufted 

 diminutive species, and very rare ; found in the cre- 

 vices of moistened rocks in high mountainous regions. 

 Its fronds, which appear in the spring and die down in 



