200 
Choice Ferns for Amateurs. 
DAY AL LI A — continued. 
D. dissecta. 
This very beautiful and easily-cultivated stove species, 
frequently found in gardens under the name of Z>. elegans 
dissecta, is a native of Java and the Malayan Archipelago, 
and one of the most extensively-grown species for decora- 
tive purposes. Its fronds, produced in great abundance 
from a stout, wide-creeping rhizome, clothed throughout 
with scales of a rusty colour, are 1ft. to l^ft. long and 
deltoid, being about as broad at the base as they are long, 
and four times pinnatifid. They are of a light green tint, 
f which contrasts agreeably with the colour of the rhizomes. 
The sori, situated one on each of the ultimate segments 
of the fertile fronds, are small, oblong, and provided with 
one or two horns protruding beyond them. 
D, divaricata. 
This exceedingly handsome, strong-growing stove 
species, native of Khasya, Northern India, the Malayan 
Peninsula, Java, &c., is generally found in commerce 
under the name of D. polyantha. Its beautiful fronds, 
2ft. to 3ft. long, are produced from thick, knotty rhizomes, 
of a woody nature, and clothed with scales of a rusty 
colour; they lare tripinnatifid, of a deep claret-red 
when young, gradually changing to a bronzy or metallic 
colour, and then to a deep shining green ; the various 
hues, all of which are generally observable on the plant, 
have a beautiful and very pleasing appearance. The 
barren and fertile fronds, although of similar size and 
shape, are very different, the latter being very finely 
divided through the contraction caused by the fructifica- 
tion. In each case the lower leaflets are often 1ft. long 
by Gin. broad; they are of a leathery texture, and the 
half-cup-shaped sori are placed obliquely as regards the 
central veins in the teeth, lat some distance from the edge. 
The place that suits this species best is a projecting rock 
in the warm Fernery, where it can show itself in all its 
beauty. It is also a shallow-rooting plant, requiring but 
a few inches of soil to develop itself to perfection, and on 
that account can easily be grown on the trunk of a dead 
Tree Fern. 
D. elegans 
A magnificent, vigorous-growing, stove species, native 
of Ceylon, the Malayan Peninsula, Java, Borneo, Madras, 
&c., and remarkable for the elegant divisions of its fronds, 
which are 1ft. to 2ft. long, 9in. to 15in. broad, deltoid, 
three times cut nearly to the midrib, and of a bright 
shining green. These fronds are abundantly produced from 
