40 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



two magnificent self-sown specimens of this beautiful Fern, with fronds fully 

 2^ft. long, having the centre of each pinna, throughout the whole plant, of 

 a bright rosy-red, with a margin of white on either side of it, which colours 

 formed the most pleasing contrast with the rich, glossy green of the other 

 portions of the fronds. These two subjects must, however, have been endowed 

 with a special and particularly robust constitution, since hundreds of seedlings, 

 pricked off from the same batch of prothalli to which the two plants referred 

 to belonged, were grown, some on shelves, close to the glass, in the warm- 

 house, and others on the same camellia-bed, but with altogether different 

 results : none of these ever succeeded in getting over the stunted stage in 

 which this eminently distinct Fern is generally seen. 



Very different, in point of culture, from Pteris quadriaurita tricolor is 

 the popular and robust-growing P. q. argyrwa, with its gracefully -arching 

 fronds, which, under liberal treatment, often attain a length exceeding 4ft. It 

 is, to say the least, very singular that, like the preceding variety, this, which 

 may justly be considered the best representative of variegation in Ferns, 

 should have been introduced about the same time accidentally, both having 

 been found spontaneously, the former in Belgium, the latter in England, 

 among some soil in which other plants had been packed and imported from 

 abroad. P. q. argyrcm, however, is by far the more useful of the 

 two, and is particularly well adapted for pot -culture for decoration. On 

 account of its remarkably well-defined and striking variegation, it is most 

 effective, as the large band of silvery-white in the centre of its fronds and 

 pinna? forms a most pleasing contrast with the lively green by which it is 

 surrounded in every part of the plant. Although recommended for growing 

 in a cool-house, where it thrives very well during the summer, this useful 

 species evidently requires a higher temperature during the winter, its dislike 

 to cold being clearly indicated by the brownish colour which its fronds, even 

 when mature, assume under cool treatment in the winter. 



Pteris palmata nobilis (or Doryopteris nobilis, as it is more commonly 

 called), is another variegated Fern requiring stove temperature. So far as 

 general appearance is concerned, this is totally different from all other Pteris, 

 as its fronds, instead of being once or several times divided, are, when in a 

 young state, first heart-shaped, then of a broad sagittate form ; but as the 

 plant becomes stronger, they assume a more palmate shape. They are bright 



