CHAPTER IV, 



GIGANTIC NON- ARBORESCENT FERNS. 



ONSIDEIiED simply from a decorative point of view, the 

 section next in importance to that exclusively composed of 

 Tree Ferns is the one including all the large-growing non- 

 arborescent kinds ; and with the exception of Dicksonia 

 (Balantium) Culcita and Woodioardia radicans, both natives 

 of Madeira and the Azores, no other Ferns belonging to this group are of 

 European origin. For the ornamentation of conservatories and winter gardens 

 of large dimensions, the numerous, and in many instances particularly striking, 

 plants which form this group are unequalled for diversity of foliage ; and 

 whatever their habit may be — drooping, as that of Woodwardia radicans, 

 Asplenium caudatum, A. longissimum, and Nephrolepis davallioides furcans ; 

 spreading, as that of several kinds of Angiopteris and Marattia, Dicksonia 

 {D ennstoedtid) davallioides Youngii, Acrostichum (Ste?iochlama) scandens and 

 Davallia hirta cristata ; erect, as that of Todea Barbara {africana) ; with 

 massive foliage, as Asplenium Nidus and its variety australasicum ; or with 

 light and finely-cut fronds, as Dicksonia cicutaria and Polypodium rugulosum 

 — they all come in for their share of usefulness, and some of them are found 

 indispensable where spacious houses have to be filled. What can have a more 

 tropical and really regal appearance in a conservatory than a naturally-arranged 

 group of the large-growing Davallias — D. divaricata (polya?itha), for instance, 

 which one cannot help admiring, especially when furnished with its finely- 

 bronzed fronds, which, bright crimson in their youth, turn with age to a 

 beautiful dark, glossy green ? D. solida, too, has large, pendulous fronds, 



