266 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



Sumatra, and Borneo. The deep green feathery 

 bi-pinnate fronds, of a somewhat leathery texture, 

 measure from one and a half to two feet in length, 

 and bear a profusion of young plants — this viviparous 

 character affording a ready means of increasing the 

 stock of such a useful and elegant subject, 



A. bissecium hails from the West Indies and Ecuador ; 

 it is of tufted habit, with pinnate fronds about two feet 

 long, the firm, erect, chestnut-brown, nearly naked 

 stipe measuring about four or six inches in length ; 

 the frond is made up of twenty or thirty pairs of 

 horizontal deeply-cut pinnce two or three inches 

 long. A. caudatum has firm erect tufted stipes about 

 foirr to six inches long, densely clothed with fine 

 brown fibrillose scales ; the beautiful dark glossy 

 green pinnate fronds, twelve to eighteen inches long 

 by four to eight inches broad, are composed of twenty 

 or thirty acuminated deeply- toothed pinnae on each 

 side of the villose rachis ; this species has a very 

 wide geographical distribution, being found in a wild 

 state in Polynesia, Malaya, Australia, Hindostan, 

 Comoros, Angola, Ecuador, and Brazil. A. cicutarium 

 is a handsome species, with delicate green, feathery, 

 tri -pinnate, shortly-stalked fronds, from six to eighteen 

 inches in length, and four to six inches in breadth ; 

 it is a native of tropical America, and is also found 

 in Abyssinia, and on the Guinea coast. 



A. crenulatum, in common with A. lanceum, A. latifo- 

 lium, A. Shepherdiia,nd.A. Thwaitesii, mentioned below, 

 belongs to the section Diplazium, in which the veins 

 are free, the sori and involucres extending to both sides 

 of some of them. This species has an erect subarbo- 

 rescent caudex, and firm, erect, slightly furfuraceous 

 stipes, twelve to eighteen inches long; the fronds, 

 with fifteen to twenty pinnae on each side below the 

 pinnatifid apex, measure two to three feet long by 

 nine to fifteen inches broad ; it is found in a wild 

 state from Cuba and Mexico to Brazil and Ecuador. 

 In A. dimorphum considerable differences in general 

 appearance are exhibited between the barren and the 

 fertile fronds, the former being bi-pinnate, with 

 broad and somewhat toothed pinnules, and the 

 latter tri-pinnate, with very finely-divided pinnules ; 

 this is a noble species, with large, gracefully arching, 

 shining dark green fronds, which, like those of A. 

 Belangeri, previously mentioned, are very proliferous, 

 and thus furnish a speedy method of propagation. 



A. lanceum has nearly entire, leathery, slightly 

 undulated fronds, six to nine inches long by three- 

 quarters to one inch broad, and slightly fibrillose 

 stipes, four to six inches long ; it is a native of the- 

 Himalayas, Ceylon, China, and Japan. A. laserpi- 

 tifolium is a handsome, large-growing species, with 

 fmely-cut fronds, some two to four feet long by six 

 to eighteen inches broad, surmounting firm, erect, 

 greyish, naked, tufted stipes, six to twelve inches 



in length ; this is found from the PoljTiesian 

 Islands and North Australia, northward to Chusan 

 and Assam. A. latifolium has an erect subarbores- 

 cent caudex, and strong erect tufted stipes, a foot or 

 more in length (clothed towards the base with nar- 

 row dark brown scales), and thin pinnate fronds, 

 two to three feet in length by nine to eighteen, 

 inches in breadth ; in a wild state this occm-s in 

 Ceylon, the Neilgherries, South China, and the 

 Philippines. A. myrioplujllum is an exquisitely 

 beautiful fern, with somewhat the aspect of A. cicu- 

 tarium, but the fronds are a darker green, and more 

 graceful and feathery in outline ; it is a native of 

 tropical America. 



One of the most strikingly distinct, and, in 

 a certain sense, one of the most useful of stove 

 Aspleniums is A. Nidus, the Bird's-nest Fern, so 

 named from the hollow nest -like centre, caused 

 by its peculiar habit of growth. This is the best 

 known of a small section — with undivided fronds 

 and veins, connected at the apex by a transverse- 

 intra-marginal line — formerly referred to the genus- 

 Thamnopteris. The lanceolate, leathery, dark glossy 

 green fi'onds measure when fully grown two to four 

 feet in length by three to eight inches in breadth. 

 A popular writer on ferns has called this " a sublime 

 Hart's-tongue," and this descriptive phrase certainly 

 gives a good idea of the general aspect of the plant. 

 Good-sized plants of this species have been used with 

 great effect, dming the summer months, in sheltered, 

 shady spots for so-called " sub-tropical " work. A. 

 SJiepherdii, a tropical American si^ecies, has thin, 

 bright green, pinnate fronds, twelve to eighteen inches, 

 long by six or nine inches broad, surmounting firm, 

 erect, tufted, greenish, scaly stipes a foot in length. 

 A. Thwaitesii, from Ceylon, has pale green hairy 

 fronds, a foot in length by fom- inches broad, with 

 eight to ten distant pinnae below the pinnatifid apex ; 

 the slender green stipes, densely clothed with strong- 

 white woolly hairs, measure about six inches in 

 length, and spring from a wide-creeping rhizome. 

 A. viviparum has beautiful dark glossj' green, finely- 

 cut fronds, one to two feet long ; in common with 

 several other species, the upper portion of the frond, 

 develops a profusion of young plants, which grow 

 rapidly if the frond be pegged down on damp soil. 

 It is a native of Mauritius and the Bom-bon. 



Cultivation. — The Aspleniums as a rule, at any 

 rate the stove and green-house species, present no 

 especial difficulties to the cultivator. The stronger- 

 growing kinds flourish in good loam and leaf -mould, 

 and are especially benefited by the repeated adminis- 

 tration of weak liquid manure during the gi^owing 

 season. Some few kinds seem to thrive best in pm'& 

 peat and sand. A. viviparum succeeds well under- 



