DAN^A. 



107 



Cases after cases of these plants, and especially of the beautiful D. crispa^ 

 have reached England in excellent condition, the plants when unpacked being 

 in some instances the very picture of health ; yet none, to our knowledge, 

 have prospered, and the most that has been done with them has been to 

 keep them ahve for three or four years, during which time they have gradually 

 dmndled away. Notwithstanding these repeated failures, the beauty of some 

 of the known kinds is such that, should the opportunity of growing them 

 present itself again, they would be well worthy of further trials. They usually 

 come oyer in their native soil, which appears to be a hght, yellow, sandy 

 loam of a very porous nature ; and they are said to grow naturally in warm, 

 constantly moist, and somewhat close and shady situations. 



Principal Species. 



D. alata — al-a'-ta (winged). Smith. 



This species, native of the West Indies, has barren fronds 1ft. to IJft. 

 long, 6in. to Sin. broad, and borne on stalks that are densely scaly and only 

 once knotted ; they are furnished with eight to ten pairs of leaflets, the central 

 ones short- stalked. Sin, to oin. long, fin. broad, with their extremities cuspidate 

 (gradually tapering into a sharp, stiff point), toothed on their margins, and 

 rounded at the base. The fertile fronds, which have their leaflets more 

 distinctly stalked, lin. to oin. long and Jin. broad, are borne on longer stalks 

 than the barren ones. — Hooker and Greville, Icones FtUcum, t. 18. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 439. 



D. crispa — cris'-pa (curled), Endres. 



By far the most beautiful species with which we are acquainted. It is 

 a native of Costa Rica, and Endres, who discovered it there, says it grows in 

 permanently moist places, where the soil is formed of sandy, porous loam 

 and vegetable debris in about equal parts. Its beautiful fronds (Fig. 22), 

 oblong in shape and 6in. long by oin. broad, are translucid, like those of the 

 popular Todea superba, and borne on short stalks that are only once knotted. 

 The barren ones are furnished with from fifteen to twenty pairs of stalkless, 

 strap-shaped, blunt leaflets, usually opposite, about ^in. broad, and irregularly 

 curled-toothed. The rachis (stalk of the leafy portion) is distinctly winged 

 throughout, and, hke the midribs, are densely scaly beneath. The fertile leaflets 



