ASPLENIUM. 



483 



of the specimens from which they were obtained. When these have to be 

 produced in large quantities — such, for instance, as the kinds belonging to the 

 bulbiferum group, which for decorative purposes are raised by the thousand — 

 our market growers find it more expeditious to detach the little bulbils 

 when furnished with two or three tiny fronds, and to prick them in close 

 together in shallow boxes filled with a loose compost of three parts of peat 

 or leaf mould, one of loam, and one of sand : in this mixture they produce 

 roots very freely, and rapidly form young plants, which may be potted in 

 single pots as soon as they have from six to eight fronds. None of the 

 British Aspleniums are known to possess these viviparous or proliferous 

 characters, and their propagation is usually effected through the division of 

 their crowns, although they may with advantage be increased from their 

 spores, which mostly ripen in the autumn and germinate freely during the 

 following spring. 



It is worthy of special note that all Aspleniums are particularly free 

 from the attacks of such pests as thrips, green fly, and mealy bug, and are 

 naturally clean plants, their worst enemies being woodlice and slugs, which 

 are fond of their succulent stalks. 



Principal Species and Varieties. 



A. (Euasplenium) abscissum — Eu-as-ple'-ni-um ; ab-sciss'-um (clipped), 

 Willdenow. 



A stove species, of medium dimensions, found from Cuba and Guatemala 

 to Peru and South Brazil. Its fronds, simply pinnate (only once divided 

 to the midrib), 6in. to 12in. long, 3in. to 4in. broad, and borne on stipes 

 (stalks) 4in. to Sin. long and of a greyish colour, are sometimes proliferous 

 (bearing young plants) at their extremity. They are furnished on each side 

 of their midrib with from twelve to twenty sessile pinna? (stalkless leaflets) ; 

 these are of a thin, papery texture and bright green colour, from ljin. 

 to 2in. long, and bluntish at their extremity, and their edge is slightly 

 but regularly dented or toothed (Fig. 75). The short sori (spore masses) are 

 abundantly produced, and are disposed in two regular rows, extending neither 

 to the midrib nor to the edge of the pumas. — Hooker, Species Filicum, 

 iii., p. 134, t. 174. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 127. 



