FERXS. 



153 



creeping slender rhizomes are densely clothed with 

 adpressed silvery scales, which are particularly con- 

 spicuous when the plant is grown upon a tree-fern 

 stem. The combination of colour formed by the 

 silvery scales of the rhizome, the reddish stipe, and 

 the dark green fronds is very pleasing. This species 

 is a neat grower of moderate size, the fronds not ex- 

 ceeding eight inches or a foot in height. 



recommended below. A good plan is to have a 

 shallow pan of the required size, place an inverted 

 pot in the centre (larger than the depth of the pan), 

 and after putting in drainage, fill up and roxmd the 

 pot with pieces of peat or a mixture of peat and 

 sphagnum, fastening the whole together into a 

 rounded cone by means of wire. The creeping 

 rhizomes should then be placed on the surface, at- 



Davallia Fijiexsis. 



Cultivation. — All the Davallias are especially im- 

 patient of stagnant moisture, and thiive be?t in a 

 thoroughly di-ained compost ; almost any soil Tvill 

 suit many of them, if the drainage requirements — 

 the most essential of all conditions — are attended to. 

 Either pure fibrous peat, peat and leaf -mould, or the 

 latter with an admixtui-e of silver sand or charcoal, 

 will do. Of com^se the larger, stronger growers are 

 not so particular, and succeed well in pots ; the 

 smaller ones, and more especially those with slender 

 rhizomes, should either be grown in baskets or as 



tacbing them by pegs or small pieces of wire. '^Vith 

 plentiful supply of water — and in a properly 

 prepared pan there is scarcely any danger of 

 over-watering, in the gi'owing season, at any rate — 

 growth soon commences, and the rhizomes soon form 

 a network over the entire sm-face. During winter 

 water should be more sparingly administered, care, 

 however, being taken never to let the pots or pans 

 become dry. A fairly light place, if somewhat near 

 the glass so much the better, is appreciated by most 

 of the Davallias. 



