FEKNIS. 



83 



P. PMjmatodes is widely distributed tliroughout 

 the Southern Hemisphere, and also occurs in Formosa 

 and Loo Choo. The wide-creeping woody rhizome 

 is clothed with dark brown fibrillose scales, and the 

 leathery naked fronds vary a good deal in size and 

 outline. It belongs to the same section as F. long ins i- 

 inuii), ali-eady m^entioned. 



^lloielloides is widely ditferent from all the 

 preceding species. It is a tiny and very curious 

 plant, thoroughly suitable for cultivation in the 

 Wardian case or for clothing moist surfaces of stones, 

 (fee, in the stove rockery. It has a widely-creeping, 

 slender, climbing rhizome, clothed with fibrillose 

 scales and dimorphous ' coriaceous fronds, the barren 

 ones oblong, entire, one to thi-ee inches in length by 

 half an inch to three-quarters of an inch broad, and 

 the fertile ones narrower and longer, both borne 

 on short ciliated stipes. This species is common 

 throughout tropical America, including the West 

 Indies. 



The nearest ally of F. quercifollaiii among those 

 which have been mentioned above is F. Meyenianmn, 

 from which this differs in the sessile sterile fronds 

 being really distinct from the long-stalked fertile 

 ones. It is a noble plant, well worth growing in any 

 collection of stove ferns. It is found from North 

 India and South China to Ceylon and Queensland. 



GREEX-HOL'SE KINDS. 



F. Blllardieri, from New Zealand, South Australia, 

 Tasmania, and the neighbouring islands, is a near 

 ally of F. FJtijmatodes, already described among the 

 stove species. 



F-JuglandifoUum, the Walnut-leaved Polypody, is 

 the green-house representative of the stove F. Icio- 

 rhizon. It inhabits the same country, viz., Northern 

 India, but ascends to elevations of 10,000 feet above 

 sea-level. The large, oval, bright reddish-brown 

 scales, which clothe the stout woody rhizome, afford 

 a striking contrast to the deep green of the large, 

 somewhat leathery, pinnate fronds. 



F. phbeium, a native of the New World from 

 Mexico to Peru, is intermediate as far as general 

 habit is concerned between F. peetinatum, above 

 mentioned, and our indigenous F. vulgare. It has a 

 stout wide-creeping rhizome, clothed with small grey 

 scales, the rachis and under surface of the piniiEe 

 covered with small scattered scales. 



F. punctatum is very widely distributed through- 

 out the Southern Hemisphere, and is also found in 

 Northern India and Japan. It is an ally of our 

 native Beech Fern, but is a very much larger and 

 finer plant. From the firm, wide-creeping, hairy rhi- 

 zome, spring the firm, erect, straw-coloured, polished 

 stipes, surmounted by the thin-textured compound 

 fronds. The variety rugulosum has a less cut and 



more leathery frond, with a deep purplish- brown and 

 densely viscid rachis. 



P. pHstulatum, from New Zealand and both tempe- 

 rate and tropical Australia, is nearly related to F. 

 Fhymatodes and F. Billardieri. It varies from six 

 inches to a foot in height, and is well worth a place 

 in a collection of green-house ferns. 



F. serpens has a firm rhizome, clothed with linear 

 rusty-coloured scales. The stipes are short, erect, and 

 the fronds dimorphous, the barren ones round or 

 elliptical, and the fertile ones longer and narrower, 

 these latter only attaining a length of four to six 

 inches by a breadth of half an inch, or slightly more. 

 The texture is leathery, the upper surface being- 

 scattered, and the lower densely coated, with close 

 whitish tomentum. This species occurs from Australia 

 and New Zealand eastward to the Society Islands. 



HARDY KINDS. 



The Alpine Polypody (P. alpestre) has such a re- 

 markable resemblance to the common Lady Fern, 

 that until within comparatively recent years it was, 

 although common on some of the Scotch mountains, 

 overlooked, the plants having been supposed to belong- 

 to that species. It is essentially a cold-loving plant, 

 the geographical distribution being given in the 

 " Synopsis Filicum " as follows : " Lapland and Scot- 

 land to the Pyrenees, Alps, and Central Eussia ; 

 Sitka, Oregon, and California." 



The Oak Fern [F. Fryojjteris) is one of the most 

 graceful and delicate of all hardy ferns ; it does well 

 in pots, in Wardian cases, or on sheltered shady rock- 

 work, and requires an abundance of moisture, its 

 bright light green fragile fronds soon becoming rusty 

 and withered by exposure to heat or drought. In 

 addition to the British Isles, the Oak Fern is found 

 throughout Europe, North and West Asia, the Hima- 

 layan region, and in North America. 



P. Kremeri, a recent introduction from Japan, has 

 the same delicate light green colour as the last- 

 named plant, but differs somewhat in the form of the 

 frond. 



The Beech Fern (P. Fhegopteris) has a slender, ex- 

 tensively creeping and slightly scaly stem, and hairy, 

 pale green, triangular fronds, which are killed by the 

 first autumn frosts. It generally gTOws in moist 

 mountainous situations, and in damp woods, and ex- 

 tends throughout Europe, North and West Asia, and 

 North America. 



The Lim^estone Pol}3)ody (P. FohcrUanam) differs 

 from the Oak Fern — of which it is considered by many 

 authorities to be a mere variety — by its less decidedly 

 three-branched, firmer, glandular pubescent, dull 

 deep green fronds, and its stouter root- stock. This 

 is one of the few ferns which appear in a state of 

 nature to confine themselves to calcareous or chalky 



