CHAPTER II. 



OLEANDRA, Cavanilles. 



(Ol-c-an'-dra.) 



HE meaning of the name Oleandra is obscure ; but it is said 

 to be derived from the Oleander (Nerium Oleander), which 

 plant 0. neriiformis is thought to resemble. In Hooker and 

 Baker's "Synopsis Filicum" Oleandra forms Genus 46. It 

 is a small, though extremely interesting division of the very 

 extensive tribe Asjridiece, and the species are almost restricted to the Tropics. 

 Botanically, they are closely related to Nephrodium, from which they are 

 principally distinguished by the peculiar scandent (climbing) habit of their 

 wide-creeping rhizomes, by their jointed stalks, and by the entire (undivided) 

 character of their fronds, which are more or less spear-shaped. The round 

 and conspicuous sori (spore masses) are inserted in a row near the base, or 

 below the centre, of the compact, free veinlets, and are covered by a reniform 

 (kidney-shaped) involucre. Although Fee, in his " Genres de la Famille des 

 Polypodiacees," enumerates no less than a dozen species, these have, by Hooker 

 and Baker, been reduced to half that number. 



Culture. 



Although not an extensive genus, Oleandra embraces some of the most 

 interesting trailing Ferns in cultivation. 0. neriiformis, a plant much more 

 like an Oleander than a Fern, is, however, an exception ; it grows somewhat 

 in the way of Gleichenia flabellata, but has thicker and more fleshy, erect 



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