456 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



Propagation is readily effected from spores, which are abundantly produced, 

 and which germinate very freely, producing young subjects in a remarkably 

 short space of time. 



M. achilleaefolia — ach-iU-e'-te-fol'-i -a (Yarrow-leaved). A variety of 

 M. caffrorum. 



M. caffrorum— caf-fro'-rum (native of Kaffraria), Desvaux. 



This handsome Fern, popularly known as M. thurifraga, is a native of 

 South Africa, Madagascar, and the Mauritius and Bourbon Islands. Being 

 of a gracefully pendulous habit, and essentially distinct from any other 

 drooping Fern, it is very useful for growing in hanging baskets of small or 

 medium size, as its elegant fronds, produced from 

 a close, tufted crown, and borne on stalks Sin. to 4in. 

 long, more or less densely clothed with scales of 

 a reddish-brown colour, sometimes attain IJft. in length 

 and 4in. in breadth. The barren ones (Fig. 113) are 

 trij)innatifid (three times divided nearly to the midrib), 

 being furnished with oblong- spear- shaped leaflets, cut 

 down to a narrowly- winged rachis (stalk) into leafits 

 of a soft, papery texture, deeply cleft and again 

 conspicuously toothed. The fertile fronds are longer 

 than the barren ones, from which they also differ by 

 being consj)icuously contracted and by having their 

 leaflets rounded at the edges : this contraction of the 

 lobes over the spore masses gives them a very elegant 

 Fig. 113. Barren Frond of appearance. The rachises and the under- surface of both 

 Mohria caffrorum kinds of fronds are more or less densely clothed with 



(much reduced). 



very narrow scales of a pale brown colour. When 

 bruised, the plant emits a strong odour of frankincense. — Hooker, Synopsis 

 Filicum, p. 436. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 375. Loioe, 

 Ferns British and Exotic, viii., t. 70. 



M. c. achilleeefolia— ach-ill-e'-a3-foF-i-a (Y arrow-leaved), Moore. 



The barren fronds of this form much resemble the leaves of the Yarrow 

 {Achillea millefoUa). It is much dwarfer in habit than the type, being only 



