528 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Polystichums are among the most handsome of hardy 

 Ferns, and, being evergreen, are additionally valuable for 

 ferneries. P. aculeatum and P. angulare have both produced 

 numerous varieties. While those of aculeatum appear harder, 

 stiffer, and better calculated to stand the weather, those of 

 angulare are softer, more graceful and pleasing in appearance. 

 What can be more charming than those exquisitely lovely 

 divisilobums — laxum, densum, and plumosum ? Words fail to 

 convey an adequate idea of the beauty of these gems, and others 

 closely related to them as seen in some ferneries. Their fronds, 

 2 feet or more long, broad at the base, tapering to a point, cut 

 into minute segments, densely overlapping each other, mossy in 

 appearance, of lovely light green — they must be seen to be 

 appreciated. 



Then there are the noble plumosums, the heavily crested 

 grandiceps of several forms, the various cristatums, the finely 

 cut acutihbum, the charming gracile, the lovely venustum, the 

 curious Wakleyanum with cruciform pinnae, and many others 

 worthy of a place in the most choice collection. 



The Scolopendriums are the most variable of all Ferns ; to 

 their eccentricities there is no limit. Fortunately some of the 

 most beautiful are constant, and from year to year retain their 

 special characters. 



The various forms of crispum are very beautiful, their fronds 

 being deeply frilled, and it is difficult to say whether the narrow 

 or broad fronded forms are the more lovely. Crispum fimbriatum 

 is specially pretty when in character ; cristulatum is a very 

 distinct and handsome crested variety, forming a compact head 

 of crisp crests ; grandiceps is a heavily crested variety ; rarno- 

 marginatum is very beautiful, being branched and crested, the 

 fronds slightly wavy and graceful ; Coolingii and others like it 

 are compact, dwarf, and much crested ; while densum is of a 

 dwarf, dense habit of growth, branched and crested to such a 

 degree that it looks like a small ball of green foliage. 



By taking the plain Scolopendrium vulgare, a handsome Fern 

 when growing under favourable conditions, and trying to imagine 

 every degree of serration, laceration, and cutting up of the frond ; 

 every degree of unevenness, from the slightly wavy to the deeply 

 goffered ; every degree of roughness of surface, from the perfectly 

 smooth to that like a toad's back ; every degree of cresting, from 



