188 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



It should be potted in equal parts of fibrous peat and loam, and, provided 

 there is abundance of heat in the house, it will make a very striking object 

 if the lower part of the pot can be kept in water. A splendid specimen of 

 it is usually to be seen in the Victoria House at Kew, where it is always 

 the admiration of every beholder. 



The interesting and judicious remarks published by Prof. D. C. Eaton, 

 in his splendidly -illustrated work on "Ferns of North America," regarding 

 the very uncommon and extremely peculiar conditions under which this Fern 

 is found in a wild state, being of importance, and likely to promote success 

 in its cultivation, we have thought it advisable to give them here in 

 their entirety. Respecting this species, Eaton, in vol. ii., p. 95, of the 

 above-named work, says: " Acrostichum aureum is the largest of all the 

 Ferns of the United States. Captain John Donnell Smith notes that it is 

 often 8ft. to lift, high ; and F^e gives three metres as the extreme height. 

 It is found on muddy shores of brackish marshes, creeks, and bayous in 

 Southern Florida, very often associated with the mangrove. It is found in 

 similar places in nearly all tropical regions, and is perhaps the only known 

 Fern which grows only within the influence of salt water. Dr. Grarber says 

 that, in ascending the creeks of Southern Florida, this Fern is found as far as 

 the water is brackish, and ceases as soon as the water becomes entirely free 

 from salt. Blume reports that he has seen one form, in the interior of Java, 

 in places full of springs abounding in carbonate of lime and chloride of sodium." 



A. auricomum — aur-ic'-om-um (having golden locks), Kunze. 



A greenhouse species, of botanical interest, native of the Andes, from 

 Columbia to Peru and Mexico. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 410. 



A. (Stenosemi'a) auritum — Sten-os-e'-nri-a ; au-ri'-tum (eared), Swartz. 



This stove species, native of the Philippines and the Malay and Solomon 

 Islands, is one of the few Acrostichums producing young plants on the 

 upper surface of their fronds, which spring from a woody caudex (upright 

 stem), and are deltoid in shape (that is to say, like the Greek delta, A), and 

 of a papyraceous (papery) texture. The barren ones, borne on stems 6in. to 

 9in. long, are from Sin. to 12in. each way ; their central segment is deeply 

 pinnatifid (the incisions of the pinnse not extending quite to the stem or 



