20 
Choice Ferns for Amateurs. 
with kindness/' but now that their requirements are 
better understood they should find a pLace wherever 
extreme delicacy of texture combined with diversity 
and beauty of form are appreciated. 
** Flowering" Ferns." 
As stated elsewhere, Ferns are Flowerless plants; 
but inasmuch as some of the species that will have 
to be enumerated are popularly known as Flowering 
Ferns, it will be necessary to offer some little ex- 
planation of what, at tirst sight, may appear a con- 
tradiction. It is fairly well known that Ferns 
generally produce their spore-cases on the under- 
surfaces of their fronds. There are, however, 
exceptions to even this general rule ; but the more 
noteworthy are confined to those genera in which 
the spore-cases are produced erect after the manner 
of Osmunda regalis, Anemia collina (Fig. 14), and 
the like. To the casual observer such would have the 
appearance of a flower, a deception that would be 
heightened where such spore-cases stand well above 
the foliage. The species quoted furnish some 
of the most interesting examples of the so-called 
Flowering Ferns, but other genera contribute — 
Botrycliium,, Ophioglossiivi , Striithiopteris, and 
several others. 
Viviparous and Proliferous Ferns. 
Another very remarkable group of Ferns that 
may be briefly noted are those classed by botanists 
as Yiviparous and Proliferous, both words very ex- 
pressive of the habit such individuals have of repro- 
ducing themselves by means of bulbils or of young 
plants disposed upon different organs. Such 
characteristics belong to both giants and pigmies, 
and are not restricted to any particular genera. In 
some, even of the larger families, only one, or at 
most, two species, reproduce their kind in the 
manner giving rise to the names; while in 
