MARATTIA. 



437 



The Marattias are highly ornamental, robust-growing Ferns, and although 

 they do not form trunks, generally attain very large dimensions. Their 

 stately fronds are produced from very thick, fleshy crowns, similar to those 

 of Angiopteris, from which they are distinguished only by having the sori 

 (spore masses) joined together and disposed in two opposite rows ; while in 

 the latter, the sori, although very close together, are not concrete, but distinct 

 and separable. Most of the known species have the fronds bipinnate (twice 

 divided to the midrib), but occasionally they are tri- or quadripinnatifid and 

 of a peculiar nature, having distinctly articulated leaflets and leafits. All are 

 of a more or less thick and fleshy substance, and are rendered most attractive 

 through the singular appendages surrounding the base of the stalks, which 

 are also jointed, and which often assume the appearance of abnormal fronds. 

 A peculiarity of this genus is that it produces most of the edible Ferns 

 known in cultivation. In New Zealand, the West Indies, Brazil, and Mexico, 

 the succulent crowns of the various indigenous species are used by the natives 

 as an article of food, either boiled, roasted, or baked. 



Culture. 



All Marattias being swamp-loving plants, they should be potted in a 

 substantial compost, and the pots partially placed in water. A mixture of 

 about equal parts of roughly-broken peat, loam, and river sand is one in 

 which they thrive most luxuriantly, especially if given a good amount of heat. 

 We have, however, seen M. fraxinea elegans stand in a cold Fernery for 

 several consecutive years, and indeed make very good progress during the 

 summer months, although resting in the winter ; but it is, we believe, the 

 only Marattia which will succeed under cold treatment. 



Marattias possess an immense advantage over most, if not all, other 

 gigantic-growing Ferns, inasmuch as, if they are accidentally allowed to get 

 dry at the roots, the fronds and their divisions, being jointed and of a fleshy 

 nature, hang down and become quite flabby — a state in which they have the 

 faculty of remaining a comparatively long time without sustaining any serious 

 damage. It is, however, advisable, when plants in that condition are detected, 

 to give water at the roots at once, when the fronds will speedily regain their 

 former stiflness without showing a trace of having suffered from the mishap. 



