398 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



Ceylon, Java, and the Pacific Islands. They are therefore exceedingly useful 

 for adorning the warm Fernery all the year round, and the cool Fernery 

 during the summer months. Whether grown in pots or planted out, they 

 should be kept in a mixture of two parts fibrous loam, two parts rough 

 peat, one part chopped sphagnum, and one part coarse sand : in this 

 compost they thrive luxuriantly, provided that at all times they receive 

 a liberal supply of water at the roots and are allowed plenty of room to 

 fully expand their gigantic foliage. When they are grown in pots, the same 

 mixture should be used, but it is a good plan to keep the pots partly 

 in water to the depth of 2in. or 3in. 



Although spores of Angiopteris are frequently and freely produced, there 

 is no record of any seedlings of these noble Ferns having ever been raised 

 in England, or indeed in any other country in Europe. The propagation 

 of these plants is usually left to their natural disposition of frequently 

 producing at the base of their fronds, young plants, which, when sufficiently 

 developed, may be detached without trouble. The most expeditious way 

 of increasing Angiopteris, however, is by means of the scaly appendages 

 with which the base of each frond is surrounded. Each of these fleshy 

 scales contains at least two dormant buds, which, under the influence of heat 

 and constant moisture, soon develop into subjects in all respects similar to 

 the parent plant. The scales should be detached in their entirety and not 

 cut up, then laid in silver sand, covered over with chopped sphagnum, and 

 kept in a close propagating case. Though this may be done at almost any 

 season of the year, the months of February and March are the time most 

 appropriate to such a mode of propagation, which always proves all the more 

 rapid when done early in the spring. According to the season hi which this 

 operation is performed, it is known that from three to five months usually 

 elapse before the first indications of growth may be noticed ; but after 

 they have made a decided start, these young bulbils rapidly gain in 

 strength, and may soon be considered as so many independent subjects. 



A. eYecta — e-vec'-ta (exalted), Hoffw.ann. 



This, the only recognised species, which is found all over the tropics of 

 the Old World, in Madagascar, in New Caledonia, in Queensland, and from 

 Japan to Ceylon, is also, according to Beddome, very common in most 



