FERNS. 



151 



formal look. All the species, perhaps with a few 

 exceptions, are too strong-growing for basket-work ; 

 but even the very large ones do well in pots, and can 

 be kept to almost any size required. Even the huge 

 iV. serra makes charming little plants for decorative 

 purposes when confined to small pots or pans ; and 

 their size depends so much on the amount of root- 

 space, &c., that in small houses and in small estab- 

 lishments a number of the other species, almost 

 equally large under different conditions, can be 

 successfully grown with no more head-room than is 

 required for an equal number of Maidenhairs. 



Davallia. — This genus is a very fine and exten- 

 sive one, with its headquarters in the tropics of the 

 Old World. The fronds vary very considerably in 

 size and in division, few more striking differences 

 in general appearance being presented by a couple of 

 plants in the same genus than the contrast between 

 the tiny D, parvula, from Malaya, with fully- 

 developed fronds measuiing scarcely so much as an 

 inch in height, and the huge East Indian D. plaiy- 

 phylla, which often, under favourable conditions, 

 attains a height of six feet or more. In texture the 

 fronds of some of the species vary very widely, not a 

 few being quite leathery in texture, whilst others are 

 herbaceous. In some species the fronds are pinnate, 

 but in the larger number they are pinnately de- 

 compound, very elegantly cut into multitudes of 

 small divisions. The veins are always free through- 

 out the genus, and the rhizome is usually wide-creep- 

 ing and scaly. The fructification consists of variously 

 shaped cups or cysts, terminating the veins at the 

 margins of the segments. Upwards of a hundred 

 species are known to science, but a considerable 

 number of these have not yet been introduced to 

 cultivation. Scarcely any of them are not thoroughly 

 well worth growing, nearly all being very ornamental 

 and useful plants. Only a selection of those that have 

 found their way to British gardens are mentioned in 

 these notes, and the most distinct and useful have 

 been chosen — in fact, those most worthy of general 

 cultivation. 



D. aculeata, a common plant in the West Indian 

 Islands, is by no means so frequently met with in 

 gardens as its merits deserve ; it has climbing fronds 

 several feet in length, the slender stalks and the 

 young growths being of a pale claret hue. Though 

 this species makes a fine pot plant, it is seen to 

 greatest advantage when planted out and allowed to 

 scramble at will over rock-work in a stove. D. alpina 

 has leathery, triangular, dark shining green fronds 

 not more than six inches in length by an inch 

 or an inch and a half in breadth ; it is a 

 native of Mergui, Ledong, Java, Borneo, and the 

 Polynesian Islands. D. affinisy from the Neil- 



gherries, Ceylon, Java, the East Himalayas and 

 Polynesia, has a thick rhizome densely clothed with 

 sharp-pointed rusty scales ; the strong, erect stipe 

 measures from four to nine inches in length, and 

 the frond itself one to two feet long by six inches 

 to a foot in breadth. JD. brachycarpa, considered 

 by Mr. Baker to be a variety of the Polynesian 

 D. gibberosa, is a recent introduction, with bold and 

 yet elegant fronds of a pleasing light green colour, 

 gracefully reflexed on all sides. D. buUata has a 

 stout creeping rhizome, densely clothed with light 

 brown or whitish fibrillose scales ; the strong erect 

 stipe is three or four inches long, and the frond 

 eight to twelve inches long by four to eight inches 

 broad. This species, which is known, in some 

 gardens as the Squirrel's-foot Fern, is not unlike 

 the more widely-grown Hare's-foot, B. Canariensis, 

 but it is smaller in size, the fronds are thinner in 

 texture, and the scales of the rhizome are very 

 different. It is a native of Hindostan (ascending in 

 the north of that country to elevations of 3,000 or 

 4,000 feet), Japan, Java, and the Malayan Peninsula. 



D. Canariensis, the Hare's-foot Fern, perhaps the 

 best kno^\Ti of all the genus, is almost too well known 

 to need any description. It is additionally interest- 

 ing as being the only Davallia which is represented 

 in a wild state in Europe. Its native countries are 

 Spain, Portugal, North Africa, the Canary Islands, 

 and Madeira. As might be expected from its 

 geographical distribution, this species requires less 

 heat than almost any other of its allies, and succeeds 

 thoroughly in an ordinary green-house. D. chosro- 

 phylla, from the North of India (where in the 

 Himalayas it ascends to an elevation of 9,000 or 

 10,000 feet above sea-level), Cashmere, the Neil- 

 gherries, Ceylon, and the Malayan Archipelago, has 

 a wide-creeping rhizome, clothed with broad obtuse 

 adpressed scales ; the naked stipe measures from 

 four to six inches in length, and the thinly herba- 

 ceous, rather fiaccid frond from nine to fifteen 

 inches in length by from four to eight inches broad. 

 The Philippine Islands B. ciliata has the rhizome 

 covered with soft brown hairs ; the firm, erect, hairy 

 stipe is about three or fom- inches long, and the 

 lanceolate frond measures a foot to a foot and a half 

 in length by about six or nine inches in width. 



B. divaricata has a stout creeping rhizome, clothed 

 with linear ferruginous scales, a firm erect stipe, six 

 inches to one foot long, and a tripinnatifid leathery 

 frond, two to three feet in length ; it is a native of 

 Khasya and Mishmee, North India, the Malayan 

 Archipelago, Hong Kong, and Java. B. elegans is 

 a beautiful sjDecies, one of the most charming of all 

 the Davallias. It has a stout creeping rhizome, 

 densely clothed with woolly fibres; the firm erect 

 stipe is from four to eight inches in length ; and the 



