366 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



' Glory of Moordreclit ' (no relation to fadcycnse), and A. elegans 

 gmcile are good novelties. Tlie Ptcris species are usefid pot plants. 

 Of the newer varieties of Nephrole'pis the following are well 

 worth cultivation: Whitmanni, Piersoni, Piersoni elegans, Piersoni 

 compacta, hostoniensis magnifica, Janki, Bernstieli, splendens, and 

 davallioides furcata. Polystichum falcatum, Lomaria gihha, Polypo- 

 dium aureum, P. glaucum and Platycerium alicorne grow well in the 

 dwelling-house. Soft water must be used for watering ferns. Manure 

 is applied in the liquid form. — S. E. W. 



Fern Culture. By Hugo Fischer {Beih. Bot. Cent. Bd. 28, 

 Abt. i. pp. 192-193). — The author has found it easy to grow fern 

 prothallia in the following solution, viz. : 1 litre water, 1 gr. KH2PO4, 

 1 gr. ammonium nitrate, '3 gr. crystallized magnesium sulphate, 



1 gr. chloride calcium, '01 gr. iron chloride. The little ferns may reach 



2 to 5 cm. in height in this solution. They should then be transferred 

 to a suitable vessel partly filled with saturated peat. The vessel is 

 then filled up with water (or preferably the above solution), with the 

 plants floating in it. As the water evaporates, it must not be entirely 

 replaced, and the young plants are able gradually to develop their 

 roots in the peat. — G. F. S. E. 



Fire, Protection of Forests from. By Henry S. Graves 

 {U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Forest Service, Bull. 82; Aug. 12, 1910).—The 

 best means of protecting woodlands from fire with the appliances in use 

 and the most approved systems of organized protection are all dealt 

 with in a masterly way in this Bulletin. The methods of fighting 

 surface fires as adopted by the State seem well up to date. — A. D. W. 



Forcing" of Plants, Advances in the Technique of. By Dr. 



Alfred Burgerstein {Prog. Rei Bot. vol. iv. pt. 1, pp. 1-26; 1911; 

 7 text figs.). — This is an account of our present knowledge regarding 

 the use of ether, chloroform, hot-water bath, steam, frost, drying, &c., 

 in the artificial forcing O'f plants or branches of shrubs into early bloom. 

 Professor Johannsen (in 1900) was one of the first to show that by 

 subjecting branches of flowering shrubs to the vapour of ether and then 

 bringing them into a warm temperature they could be more rapidly 

 brought intO' flower than when the ether treatment was omitted. 

 Further experiments upon the effects of ether vapour were then carried 

 out in the Dresden Botanical Garden, and by Aymard in Montpellier. 



The most useful apparatus for' applying the ether, the quantity 

 ■of ether which yields the best results, the time during which the plants 

 should be left exposed to the vapour, and the most favourable tem- 

 perature were all ascertained and described by the above observers and 

 by Walter Howard in some extensive investigations upon the winter 

 rest of plants. Lilacs, Azaleas, Prunus sp., Amygdalus sp., are among 

 the plants giving the most satisfactory results. Chloroform exen^s a 

 similar influence upon the forcing of plants into early flower as does 



