3o6 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
Those interested in the literature and history of Sarra- 
cenias, and who wish for still further information, may find 
it in the botanical libraries at the Natural History Museum, 
Cromwell Road, South Kensington ; or in the library in 
the Herbarium at Kew. 
References. — For the species and literature see Sereno 
Watson's Index to North American Botany, 1878, p. 39 ; 
Master's Monograph of Sarracenias in Gard. Chron., 1881, 
June 25, p. 817 ; July 2, p. 11 ; and July 9, p. 40; 
Nicholson's Dictionary of Gardening, vol. 3, p. 1887, and 
supplementary volume ; Garden, vols, i, pp. 59, 201, and 
420; 4, p. 207 ; 5, p. 399 ; 8, p. 500 ; II, p. 470; 17, p. 
302 ; 20, p. 595, and other notes ; Boulger, Gard. Chron., 
1 88 1, p. 627 ; De Candolle, Prodromus, vol. 17, p. 4, etc. ; 
in Oliver's edition of Kerner's Nat. Hist, of Plants, vol. 
I, p. 125, are interesting physiological details ; see also 
Messrs. Veitch and Son's Catalogues, 1878 to 1905 ; 
Messrs. Bull's Lists of New and Rare Plants, 1880 and 
1884 ; Sander's New Plants, 1897, for description and 
figures of some of the best hybrids ; for Macfarlane's 
study of S. Catesbsei see Contributions from the Bot. 
Dept. of the Universities of Pennsylvania, 1904, vol. 2, 
p. 426 ; Bailey's Encyclopaedia of American Horticulture, 
article Sarracenia. 
F. W. BURBIDGE. 
Trinity College Botanical Gardens, 
Dublin. 
THE TWINING FERNS 
[Lygoditi7n) . 
Of rare beauty of form, these delicate 
trailing ferns are little seen in gardens, 
though charming for pillars and leafy 
screens in the stove and greenhouse, and 
no trailers are more effective for deco- 
ration. Not difficult to cultivate either, 
for in a climate so little suited to Ferns 
as the French Riviera, they will thrive 
with the least care, while under glass 
in our country, few tender Ferns are 
more easily managed. They have well 
defined times of growth — when they 
can hardly have too much water — 
followed by a rest, while the stems 
harden. When fully matured, the fronds 
last for years and differ from those of all 
other Ferns in their power of lengthen- 
ing indefinitely, climbing over all that 
comes in their way, and weaving thick 
green curtains. In the forests of the 
tropics they are found covering acre 
after acre of bush with their fragile gar- 
lands, even draping tall trees to a height 
of nearly loo feet, and floating again 
earthwards in graceful festoons. Their 
great vigour fits them for winter-gardens 
and to cover pillars, arches, walls, or 
rafters, where they will stand more light 
than most Ferns, and increase in beauty 
from year to year. 
In parts of southern India L. scandens 
grows in profusion around the moist 
rice-fields and on the hills up to a 
height of 3,500 feet where during the 
wet season (lasting from June to Sep- 
tember), there are 130 inches of rain, 
and during this time the plants grow 
at a surprising rate. Save for scanty 
showers the rest of the year is dry, with 
much variation in temperature, and this 
cool, dry season toughens the fronds 
and allows a time of rest. In the south 
of France a treatment which included 
abundance of water from the end of 
May to September, followed by months 
of cooler weather and lessened watering, 
gave complete success. In British gar- 
dens conditions like these are often best 
met with in a vinery, where back walls 
might be given up to these climbing 
Ferns, trained upon strings into a screen 
of vivid green, and the cut "trails" are 
very useful for the dining-table. The 
times of rest, free growth, and ripening, 
are the same for Vines and Ferns ; the 
trails of 10 to 20 feet formed in one 
season, are ample for most purposes ; and 
the plants are more satisfactory when cut 
down year by year than when allowed 
to run to greater lengths. Though they 
can be grown in pots, they are best 
planted out in narrow borders of light 
loam and peat or leaf-mould, made por- 
