FERNS WITH COLOURED OR TINTED FRONDS. 33 



The glaucous or bluish tints, which so effectively relieve the monotony 

 of a uniform mass of green foliage, and which, as has been stated above, are 

 well represented among strong-growing kinds by Polypodium aureum and 

 P. a. areolatum (sporadocarpum) , are shared particularly by some of the dwarf 

 Pellseas : these form in themselves a most interesting group, and, being 

 evergreen, are well adapted for the ornamentation of our warm and cool 

 Ferneries all the year romid. It is really very difficult to state which of these 

 plants are most effective, as the same refreshing tints which characterise the 

 genus Pellcea are shared to a great extent by nearly all the kinds comprised 

 in it. P. andromedcefolia, P. atropurpurea, P. Bridgesii, P. omithopus, and 

 P. o. brachypiera, are little gems among glaucous Ferns ; but the most distinct 

 in form are P. ternifolia, P. cordata, and P. c. flexuosa. The last has gracefully- 

 pendulous fronds, which show themselves to perfection when the plant is grown 

 in a suspended basket, and near the light. P. ternifolia requires to be grown 

 in the same way to show to the best advantage its prettily- coloured fronds, 

 which are rendered still more striking by their curious and uncommon shape, 

 the pinna; being disposed in whorls, forming little stellate clusters of pale blue 

 foliage, set at equal intervals all along a black stem, which is no stouter than, 

 and as shining as, that of an Adiantum. P. cordata is now a very scarce 

 species, whose fronds, averaging l^ft. long when fully developed, stand nearly 

 erect, thus showing to perfection the heart-shaped pinnee, which are of a most 

 pleasing outline, while their natural glaucous colour is all the more showy on 

 account of the stripes being straw-coloured. 



Even the genus Selaginella supplies us with several subjects particularly 

 attractive on account of their bright colours. Nothing is more gorgeous than 

 the lovely peacock-blue tint of the foliage of the common drooping S. uncinata 

 (popularly known as S. cassia), which is very extensively used for planting in 

 hanging baskets for cool- and warm-houses alike. The same beautiful colour 

 is equally peculiar to S. Wittdenovii, a species of upright scandent habit which, 

 in commerce, has from time immemorial been known, though, as it would 

 appear, erroneously, under the names of S. laevigata and S. cassia arborea. 

 The bronzy, erect-growing S. atroviridis and the metallic S. Vogelii (africana) 

 and S. rubella deserve special notice, as well as the bright golden form (aurea) 

 of the dwarf, creeping S. Kraussiana (or, as it is more commonly called, 

 S. denticulata), which is extensively used for covering the ground in Ferneries, 



