A Dictionary of Choice Ferns. 
205 
DAV ALLIA — continued. 
habit. Its beautiful fronds, of a peculiarly soft light 
green colour, are produced in profusion from very short, 
creeping rhizomes having all the appearance of numerous 
crowns crowded together ; they are borne on stout yet 
flexible stalks, and attain fully 6ft. in length. These 
fronds not only differ from thoise of all other known species 
in having their extremity heavily tasselled, but even their 
leaflets are freely branched and sub-divided near the 
summit, and the natural weight of these crests and tassels, 
and the much-divided pinnse and pinnules, give the whole 
plant a very attractive appearance by producing a gradual 
and graceful curve of the stalks. D. h. cristata is one of 
the strong-growing Davallias which should preferably be 
grown in fibrous peat and sand only; it is also one of 
those which suffer most from insufficiency of water at the 
roots at any time of the year. The whole plant is slightly 
hairy, and on that account should never be watered 
overhead. It very seldom produces fertile fronds, so that 
it is generally increased by the division of the crowns. 
D. Mariesii, 
An elegant, deciduous, greenhouse species, of dwarf 
habit and very free growth ; it is a native of Japan, where 
it is very extensively used for decoration. In general 
aspect it is not unlike the well-known D. hullata, but it 
is more slender in all its parts. As a basket Fern, 
D. Mariesii is one of the best of the genus ; its rhizomes, 
of a very slender and flexible nature, readily take pos- 
session of the whole exterior surface of the basket, and 
peep out in all directions. It is extensively used in Japan 
for forming boats, wreaths, crosses, land. other designs, to 
which purpose its flexible rhizomes readily lend themselves. 
D. M. cristata is a prettily-crested garden variety. 
D. Mooreana. 
Synonymous with D. pallida. 
D. novfie=zelandise. 
This exceedingly beautiful greenhouse Fern, native of 
New Zealand, is more generally known under the name of 
Acrophorus hispidus. It almost equals some of the Filmy 
Ferns in beauty, and should be extensively grown, as it 
makes a very pretty object on the rockwork, in the fissures 
of which it becomes quite at home. The fronds, 1ft. to 
l^ft. long, 4in. to Sin. broad, triangular, and tripinnate, 
are produced from a slender, creeping rhizome clothed 
wich rust-coloured hairs, which are soft and jointed; they 
are of a brownish-green colour, glossy, of a somewhat 
leathery texture, and borne on firm, erect stalks of a 
