176 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



D. (Balantium) Culcita— Bal-an'-ti-mn ; Cul'-cit-a (a cushion), LEeritier. 



This very handsome, large-growing, greenhouse species, native of Madeira 

 and the Azores, where it is found at elevations of from 2000ft. to 3000ft., 

 is popularly known under the name of " Cushion Fern," from the fact that 

 its crown and the base of its fronds are covered with a dense, woolly covering 

 of a soft, silky nature, so abundant that it has now become an article of 

 commerce. B. Cidcita cannot be strictly called a Tree Fern, inasmuch as its 

 trunk seldom, if ever, rises more than a few inches above the ground (Fig. 40), 



but it is as highly decorative and 

 as eiFective as any arborescent kind. 

 Its fronds, fully IJft. long, 1ft. 

 broad, and tripinnate (three times 

 divided to the midrib), are borne 

 on stout, upright stalks as long 

 again as their leafy portion. The 

 lower ]3innules (leafits) are deltoid 

 (in shape of the Greek delta. A), 

 and have egg-shaped divisions, cut 

 down to the rachis (stalk) in the 

 lower part, with oblong, unequal- 

 sided, deeply-toothed segments of a 

 leathery texture and wedge-shaped 

 at the base. The fertile fronds are 

 so much contracted that there is 

 very little membrane left between 

 the sori (spore masses), which are one Ime across and have a smgular 

 covering somewhat resembling a purse. — Hooker^ Species Filicum, i., p. 70. 

 Nicholso?ij .Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 467. Lowe, Ferns British and 

 Exotic, viii., t, 39. 



D. Cidcita, or, as it is most usually called, Balantium culcita, is a grand 

 Fern, growing naturally in very swampy places, as is testified by the fact 

 that most of the imported clumps of it arrive here entirely covered with 

 Hymenophyllum tunhridgense. Year after year hmidreds of crowns or clumps 

 of the Cushion Fern are brought here from their native places, and every 

 time the tiny Filmy Fern is brought with them. Although a very strong 



