FERNS. 



63 



is like a Swedish Turnip, but is too astringent in 

 taste to be agreeable, and is not much altered by 

 cooking. The leathery, bipinnate fronds are dark 

 green above, and somewhat paler beneath, the stipes 

 and main rachis being muricate, or covered with 

 small raised points. 



Cultivation. — All the Alsopkilas grow well in a 

 strong soil, a good fibry loam being best suited 

 to them. They can be readily grown to a consider- 

 able size in even small-sized pots, that is to say, 

 small in comparison with those required for many 

 other large - growing ferns. In case the fronds 

 become pale - coloured, and the plant gets out of 

 health for lack of nutrition, a top-dressing of per- 

 fectly fresh cow-manure is of great value ; the stems, 

 too, under such circumstances, should be syringed 

 twice a week with weak liquid - manure water. 

 Failures in the cultivation of these and other Tree- 

 ferns are often to be attributed to neglect in keeping 

 the stems moist, many of the species depending 

 principally on the adventitious roots which clothe 

 their trunks. A thoroughly moist atmosphere 

 throughout the year is essential to the well- 

 being of the Alsophilas ; under cultivation, too, 

 shading is as a. rule necessary. The temperature 

 during summer should not descend below 60*^ 

 Fahrenlieit for the stove species, and may rise to 

 80^. During the period of growth, and particularly 

 when the crown of young fronds is being developed, 

 the houses should be kept close, cold draughts of dry 

 air turning the tender fronds black. The green- 

 house species require practically the same treatment 

 as those of the stove, with the exception of the lower 

 temperature, in which the more tropical ones would 

 not thrive. 



Actiniopteris. — The genus Actiniopteris con- 

 tains but a single species, which is at once recog- 

 nisable from all the other genera belonging to the 

 tribe Asplenice by its flabellate habit, like thq Fan 

 Palm {Cham(srops) in miniature. A. radiata has 

 densely-tufted stipes, two to six inches long, the 

 fan-shaped frond being an inch to an inch and a 

 half deep, composed of numerous dichotomous 

 segments, which are rush-like in texture, not more 

 than one-twenty-fourth of an inch broad, and the 

 segments of the fertile frond longer than those of 

 the barren one. The variety Anstralis has fewer 

 segments, which are longer, and more subulate at 

 the point ; it is a larger, stronger-growing plant, 

 and more readily cultivated than the type. 



A. radiata is found around the mouths of old 

 wells, and on walls and rocks, throughout India, 

 Ava, Ceylon, Arabia, Upper Egypt, Abyssinia, the 

 Mascarene Islands, Zambesi-land, Angola, &c. 



Cultivation. — In a wild state, this fern is accus- 



tomed to extreme drought for a portion of each 

 year, and the fronds dry up, and the plants look 

 quite dead. The small crowns, however, will re- 

 tain their vitality for a long time, and, if collected 

 during the dry season, can be forwarded by post, 

 without injury, to any part of the world. Under 

 cultivation, however, it is hazardous to try this 

 drying-off process, and the plants succeed well if 

 never allowed to die down at all. A mixture of 

 pieces of brick and lumps of fibry peat is all that is 

 needed, taking care to place the plants, after they 

 are potted, close to the glass, in the stove, where 

 plenty of Hght can be obtained. They must, how- 

 ever, be sheltered from the direct rays of the sun. 

 Plenty of atmospheric moisture is essential, and, if 

 carefully potted, the plants can hardly be over- 

 watered during the height of the growing season. 

 The variety Australis is an especially desirable plant, 

 of more robust constitution than the type. 



The Anemias. — Anemia, often erroneously 

 written Aneimia, is a distinct and well-marked genus, 

 containing nearly thirty species, almost all of which 

 are confined to tropical America. The small cap- 

 sules are produced in great profusion, and form a 

 copiously-branched panicle, quite distinct from the 

 leafy part of the frond. Amongst the few species 

 mentioned below are representatives of the sections 

 — or, as some authors regard them, genera — Anemo- 

 dictyon, Coptophyllum, and Anemirhiza. We follow 

 the " Synopsis Fill cum " in treating these as belong- 

 ing to Anemia. 



A. adiantifolia, which forms J. Smith's genus, 

 Anemirhiza, is characterised by its elongated rhizome, 

 from which the stems arise in a single row. A. as- 

 plenifolia and A. carnifolia are simply forms of this 

 species, which is found in Cuba, Bahamas, and 

 Florida, and from Mexico to Bahia. A. collina has 

 firm erect stipes, densely clothed with fine ferru- 

 ginous spreading hairs ; the almost leathery barren 

 segments are sessile, six to twelve inches long by two 

 to three inches broad, with about twelve sessile pinnae 

 on each side. A. mandioccana, like the last-named, 

 a native of Brazil, has decidedly villose stipes six 

 to twelve inches long, and oblong-lanceolate barren 

 segments a foot or more in length by from two to 

 four inches in breadth; there are twenty or more 

 close pairs of pinnae, and the rachises and surfaces 

 are finely pilose. A. millefoJia, from South Brazil, 

 has hairy barren fronds, in shape and cutting much 

 resembhng the leaf of our native Yarrow or Milfoil 

 [Achillea Millefolium). A. Fhyllitidis has straw- 

 coloured stipes, six to eighteen inches long, and 

 simply pinnate, subcoriaceous, sessile, barren seg- 

 ments, four to twelve inches long by two to eight 

 inches broad ; this is found from Cuba and Mexico 



