CHAPTER XXIV, 



HEMIONITIS, Linnceus. 

 (He-mi-on-i'-tis.) 

 Ivy-leaved Fer?is. 



HIS genus, composed exclusively of small-growing Ferns with 

 peculiar -shaped fronds, is included in the tribe Grammitideoe^ 

 and forms in Hooker and Baker's " Synopsis Filicum " 

 Genus 59. It is the old Greek name used by Dioscorides 

 (from hemionos, a mule, supposed to be barren) without 

 any apparent reason, as these plants are undoubtedly fertile. It forms 

 a small group of stove plants whose habitat is almost confined to the Tropics, 

 and which are readily distinguished through their spore masses being disposed 

 in continuous rows along, and sometimes also developed between, the veins, 

 as in Anetium of Splitgern, in which division they are reticulated (forming 

 a regular little network). 



Culture. 



Although some eight or nine species of Hemionitis are known and 

 described, only three or four of them are usually found in cultivation : these 

 are easily-grown plants of dwarf habit, very useful for decoration and also 

 for growing in Fern-cases, where they thrive luxuriantly even if planted in 

 moss only. When grown m pots, all these singular Ferns require is a mixture 

 of two parts of fibrous, soft peat, and one part of sand, or where the peat 

 obtainable is of a somewhat close nature, the mixture is benefited by the 



