PLATYCERIUM. 



77 



well in the greenhouse, the cool conservatory, or the stove. Of all known 

 Platy ceriums it is the one which grows the quickest and which is the most 

 easily propagated from the young plants produced on its roots. According 

 to Lowe, this useful plant was introduced by Mr. Caley into the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, in 1808. Its barren fronds are rounded and convex, with 

 edges waved and lobes spreading, and are downy when young. The fertile 

 fronds are 2ft. to 3ft. long, clustered, of somewhat upright habit, twice or 

 three times forked (Fig. 28), and of a thick, leathery texture ; their strap- 

 shaped and bluntish ultimate divisions have the fructification disposed in the 

 last forks and at then base in very irregular patches, and the under- surface 

 is covered with a thin, cottony down. — Hooker. Species Filicum, v., p. 282. 

 Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, iii., p. 157. Lowe, Ferns British and 

 Exotic, vii., t. 63. 



P. a. majus — ma'-jus (larger), Moore. 



In this variety, which is a native of Australia and requires a warmer 

 temperature than the species, the foliage is much larger and the entire plant 

 shows a much more robust habit. Its broadly-lobecl fertile fronds, borne on 

 stiff, flat stalks, are seldom divided more than once, the limb being elegantly 

 drooping, though the frond as a whole is erect. The barren fronds are 

 roundish, convex, and overlap each other. For Fig. 29 we are indebted to 

 Messrs. James Veitch and Sons. — Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, iii., 

 p. 157. 



P. biforme — bif-or'-me (of two forms), Blume. 



This stove species, native of Burmah, Singapore, the Malayan Peninsula 

 and Islands, Java, Borneo, the Philippines, &c, is the only species possessing 

 a distinct uniformly fertile segment, and this in some specimens is nearly 1ft. 

 broad. Its barren fronds, which overlap each other, are upright and very 

 thick, especially towards the base, and their edge is so deeply cleft that 

 while they cannot be said to be properly lobed, they are certainly more than 

 sinuated (notched). The fertile fronds, 6ft. to 15ft. long and of an essentially 

 drooping character, are formed of narrow, strap-shaped, barren divisions, and 

 of fertile ones, which are distinctly either spoon-shaped or kidney -shaped, 

 shortly stalked, 6in. to Sin. broad, and entirely covered with fructification, 



