84 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



of the larger-growing forms of Asplenium. This group contains, besides the 

 greater part of the genus Asplenium, such curiosities as Hemionitis palmata 

 (generally and popularly known as the Ivy-lea vecl Fern), whose five-lobed 

 fronds are rendered very conspicuous by the quantity of young plantules 

 which originate from the base of these lobes, and which, even when allowed 

 to remain undisturbed, attain a certain development, their tender roots 

 sometimes covering the whole of the old fronds. It is a pretty, and also a 

 most interesting, plant. 



The singular and interesting Neplir odium prolificum, from Japan, is another 

 subject in which the viviparous character is wonderfully well developed. Its 

 fronds, somewhat finely cut comparatively to their size and texture (which is 

 very leathery), form a triangular outline, and are borne on stalks varying 

 from Gin. to Sin. long ; whereas their limb, or leafy portion, reaches over 

 l^ft., and is bipinnately divided. It is an easily-grown Fern, suitable for 

 cool-house culture, and the greatest peculiarity of this singular plant — 

 entirely different in this respect from all other members of its genus — is 

 that of producing in great abundance leafy buds or bulbils, either in the 

 axils of the divisions of the fronds or on the margins of the limb, or even 

 on the stalks or rachides. 



Japan further supplies our Ferneries with the handsome, vigorous -growing 

 Woodwardia orientalis, whose bipinnatifid and very broad fronds, of a par- 

 ticularly flat nature and very leathery texture, attain from 4ft. to 5ft. in 

 length, and bear on their upper surface a profusion of little bulbiform plants, 

 which, when left undisturbed on the mother frond, rarely, if ever, produce 

 more than a couple of tiny little fronds, but grow rapidly when allowed to 

 fall upon a mossy or otherwise soft and moisture-retaining material. 



We have in the North American Cystopteris bulbifera another striking 

 illustration of the proliferous character possessed by certain Ferns ; for its 

 fronds, from lOin. to 12in. long, with segments of a light green colour and 

 deeply cut, bear on their under side a quantity of small bulbs, which, as soon 

 as they drop to the ground, give birth to little plants in all respects similar 

 to the parent. 



As before stated, with a few exceptions, the majority of the Ferns 

 forming this group of plants with viviparous and proliferous characters, are 

 found in the genus Asplenium, and this is all the more singular inasmuch 



