614 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



Madeira, the Canary Islands, &c. According to Lowe, this interesting plant 

 must liave caused a good deal of trouble to the botanists as regards its 

 proper position, for he states (" Ferns British and Exotic," i., p. 52) that 

 " Sprengel, Willdenow, Schkuhr, Linnteus, &c., considered it to be an 

 Acrostichum, whilst De Candolle ]3laces it in tlie same family with our 

 lovely Ceterach offi.cinarumy N. Marantce produces from a rhizome (prostrate 

 stem) of a woody nature, and densely covered with bright rusty-coloured, 

 narrow scales, some broadly spear-shaped fronds, 4in. to 12in. long, l^in. to 

 Sin, broad, and borne on strong, wiry stalks Sin. to 6in. long ; they are 

 bipinnate, being furnished with spear-shaped leaflets cut down to the rachis 

 (stalk) into close, oblong, entire pinnules (leafits), of a thick, leathery texture. 

 The upper surface, of a pale green colour, is naked, while the under-side is 

 thickly covered with reddish-brown scales. The sori (spore masses) are 

 disposed all along the margins of the leaflets. — Hooher, Species Filicum, 

 v., p. 120. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 456. Lowe, Ferns 

 British and Exotic, i., t. 18a. 



N. Marantoe is seldom met with in anything like good condition, on 

 account of its being usually grown in too much heat. It is a plant which 

 not only prefers, but really requires, thoroughly cold treatment. The most 

 convincing proof of this may be derived from the way in which it is grown, 

 with signal success, by Messrs. J. Backhouse and Son, of York. Nowhere 

 else, perhaps, is it brought to such perfection, and yet very little trouble is 

 taken with it ; all through the summer it is grown out in the open, and 

 during the winter the plants are simply put into cold frames, where the frost 

 often penetrates, and where they are protected only from excessive wet 

 weather, which to this species is much more injurious than cold. 



N. mollis — mol'-lis (soft), Kunze. 



This greenhouse species, of medium dimensions, native of Chili and the 

 Andes of Guatemala, is a well-marked, rigid, and robust plant, producing 

 from a very thick, woolly rhizome (prostrate stem) fronds Sin. to 12in. 

 lono' and l|in. to 2in. broad, borne on strong, erect stalks 2in. to Sin. 

 long. These fronds are tripinnate (three times divided to the midrib), with 

 their upper leaflets close, the lower ones being distant, spear-shaped, and 

 often upcurled. The leaflets are again divided into small, roundish 



