FERNERIES. 403 



fronds are covered with hairs. The A. quercifolium is another most 

 interesting plant, with a frond like an oak-leaf. 



The Stag-horn ferns, or Platyceriums, constitute a remarkable genus, 

 and help to diversify the aspect of a fernery. The P alcicorne (fig. 

 920) is common, and will grow out of doors in the summer time, as it 

 comes from Australia. It likes light and air. When planted in a 

 suspended basket, young plants are formed at the apices of the roots 

 so that an immense aggregation of plants is the result. P. grande (fig. 

 920«) is a magnificent plant from Australia ; it has become somewhat 

 scarce, but I do not know the reason. A fine specimen is a splendid 

 object. It multiplies from spores, and I have seen seedlings at the 

 Botanic Gardens at Florence, and I myself possess one obtained from 

 a nursery. I have besides the P. cethiopicum, from the coast of Guinea. 

 In all the Platyceriums (and there are but five species known), the 

 barren fronds differ from the fertile, which resemble stag-horns. They 

 are all fine, interesting, and striking plants. 



Another small genus, Osmunda, has only six species, of which we 

 grow three : one of them is 0. regalis, with its diminutive from America, 

 O. gracilis (fig. 881) ; the other two are 0. Claytoniana, also called 

 O. interrupta (fig. 882), and O. cinnamomea, both from Canada. We 

 prefer to grow all out of doors, though 0. cinnamomea and O. Clay- 

 toniana are finer when grown in a cold house. 



The Todea is another genus, containing only four species, but these 

 are of matchless beauty. T. Barbara, or africana, as it is called by some, 

 from New Zealand, has a caudex of great size. There is a plant of 

 this species at the temperate house at Kew which weighs some hundred- 

 weights, and there is also one of large size at the Botanic Gardens at 

 Florence. My younger plants form finer fronds than even these large 

 and interesting plants. 



The three other species, sometimes called Leptopteris, have filmy 

 membranous fronds. The T. hymenophylloides is a lovely fern, which 

 when old has a stem like a tree fern, from the top of which the fronds 

 spring forth in the most elegant manner. This fern is liable to be 

 attacked by fungi, and likes air and light, and even this forms its caudex 



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