CHAPTER IX, 



CLIMBING, TRAILING, AND DROOPING FERNS. 



HIS section embraces a large number of plants which, from 

 a decorative point of view, are most valuable, while, on 

 account of their peculiar structure, many of them are also 

 of the utmost interest to the botanist as well as to the 

 gardener. The various ways in which most of them can be 

 used render them of great service wherever collections of Ferns are grown 

 for their own merit, the majority of them being specially adapted for growing 

 in places which would frequently, without their presence, be singularly 

 difficult to make pleasant to the eye. 



Climbing Ferns. 



Of Climbing Ferns proper, there are none but those belonging to the 

 genus Lygodimn; but although only a comparatively small number of these 

 are known to cultivation, they are sufficiently varied to enable anyone to use 

 them for the decoration of the warm- and of the cool-house. Their peculiar 

 power of twisting and twining around sticks, strings, wires, &c, in the same 

 way as ordinary climbing plants, enables us to till up certain spaces in the 

 Fernery by employing Ferns exclusively. Lygodiums are all of scandent or 

 sub-scandent habit, and, unlike other Ferns, with, to a certain extent, the 

 exception of G-leichenias, their graceful fronds possess the property of ex- 

 tending to an almost indefinite length. These, under cultivation, frequently 

 measure from 25ft. to 30ft. in length, and form, when carefully trained, 



