HYPOLEPIS. 



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and all the species require either stove or greenhouse temperature. They are 

 highly ornamental when planted in the rockery, for which purpose they 

 are most useful, as they thrive best when associated with stones, over and 

 amongst which their creeping rhizomes (prostrate stems) delight to run, 

 although they do not cling to the stones. All are of easy culture, and when 

 kept in pots should be grown in rough peat with a good sprinkling of small 

 stones and silver sand, as they require an abundant supply of water at the 

 roots at all times of the year. On that account also it is indispensable that 

 the drainage of either the pots or the part of the rockery in which they are 

 planted should be perfect, any deficiency in this respect producing most 

 disastrous results. Hypolepises should be grown in a fairly shaded position, 

 as the rays of the sun are hurtful to their foliage, which in most instances is 

 of a soft, papery texture. 



All the species of this genus may be propagated from spores, which in 

 most cases vegetate freely ; but they are usually increased by the division 

 of their rhizomes, this being a quicker and less troublesome mode of 

 reproduction. 



Principal Species and Varieties. 



H, amaurorachis — am-aur-or'-ach-is (having a dark rachis), Kunze. 



This highly ornamental, greenhouse species, very distinct from any other 

 in cultivation, is a native of Australia. Its remarkably handsome fronds, of 

 a soft, papery texture, light, cheerful green in colour, and of a very hairy 

 nature on both surfaces, are produced in great abundance from thick, hairy 

 rhizomes (prostrate stems), and are of an elegant, elongated-triangular shape. 

 They are about 3ft. long and 2ft. broad at the base, and are borne on sturdy 

 stalks Ift. to IJft. long, which, like the rachis (stalk of the leafy portion), 

 are of a dark purplish colour, rough and very hairy ; they are three or four 

 times divided nearly to the midrib towards the base, being less divided towards 

 the summit. The pinnae (leaflets) are distmctly petiolate (stalked), those at 

 the base being opposite, the others alternate ; their pinnules (leafits) or sub- 

 divisions are undulated and notched. The abundant and conspicuous sori 

 (spore masses) are situated singly in the notches of the lobes and disposed 

 on their margin. — Loive^ New and Rare Ferns, t. 2. 



z 2 



