i 8q 



say once a fortnight, when growth is well started, a gentle 

 dewing with perfectly clean water will be beneficial. At 

 the outset, however, " leave it alone " is the motto. 



Having mastered the modus operandi of the start, we will 

 devote a line or two to the plants themselves. 



Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense and H. unilaterale. 



Both these are small-growing filmies, with fronds an 

 inch or two high as a rule, though they may attain double 

 that size. The fronds, which are twice divided into blunt- 

 ended, tongue-shaped lobes, are semi-transparent and very 

 much alike in both species, but in H. unilaterale, as its 

 name implies, the divisions all spring from the upper half 

 of the pinna or side division of the frond. These ferns 

 bear their spores in relatively large urn-shaped cups 

 seated at the base of the pinna next the midrib. In H. 

 Tunbridgense this cup is fairly level-brimmed, while in H. 

 unilaterale it is cleft in the middle. Both have long, creeping 

 root-stocks, quite thread-like, from which the fronds 

 spring singly. Some branched forms have been found of 

 H. unilaterale, but the variation has no appreciable effect 

 on the appearance of the clumps, which owe their charm 

 entirely to their mossy look and translucent, fresh, dark 

 green colour. 



Trichomanes radicans. 



This fern now is very rare in a wild state, only existing 

 in very secluded mountain glens on private estates, but 

 formerly it was found in a number of places, and as a 

 species it is widely distributed in many distant parts of 

 the world, especially in warmer climes than ours. It is, 

 however, quite hardy. Its culture is already indicated. 

 A number of very distinct varieties have been found, the 

 best of which are: T. r. Andrewsi, with narrow and more 

 lance-shaped fronds than the type ; T, r. dilatatum, a 



