LO MARIA. 



409 



hardy Fernery, but, like some others of our British Ferns, it may with great 

 advantage be also used for the decoration of the greenhouse and conservatory : 

 under such conditions its fronds, which are extremely useful in a cut state 

 for mixing with cut flowers, retain their stiffness all through the winter. 

 Some very handsome specimens of this species, in Sin. pots, have lately been 

 produced in quantities by our market-growers for winter decoration ; this, 

 however, is not by any means a new notion, as more than thirty years ago, 

 a writer in "The Cottage Gardener," vol. xv., p. 261, said: "Having grown 

 L. Splcant to a great extent, I can say confidently that it will grow, and 

 that, too, most luxuriantly, in a greenhouse. I have had plants of it in 

 8Jin. pots throw out eighty-three fronds, fourteen of which were fertile ; and 

 it was that, and a fine plant of Scolopendrium undulatum, that attracted the 

 notice of most visitors, for they were really noble plants." 



The commonest, as also the most reliable, method employed for 

 increasing the varieties of the Hard Fern is the division of the crowns, as 

 very little dependence can be placed on their exactly reproducing the 

 varieties in any other way. The species is readily propagated by means of 

 spores, which are usually ripe about September. 



L. Spicant has produced, naturally and also through cultivation, many 

 very interesting varieties, the most distinct and the most attractive of 

 which well deserve special attention at the hands 

 of all Fern-growers, the more so that in hardi- 

 ness and decorative qualities they are equal to the 

 species from which they are issue. They are too 

 numerous to be all described here ; in a Hst pub- 

 lished in March, 1865, Mr. P. Neill Fraser, of 

 Cannonmills Lodge, Edinburgh, enumerates seventy- 

 eight more or less distinct kinds in his possession. 

 We have limited ourselves to the most striking Aitkiniana 

 only, the descriptions of which follow : ^""''^ reduced). 



L. S. Aitkiniana— Ait-kin-i-a'-na (Aitkin's), Stansjield. 



A remarkable variety, found in the West of Ireland in 1872. Its fronds, 

 both barren and fertile, terminate in huge, crested and branched heads 

 (Fig. 100), but its true character is not shown until it attains a certain size. 



