208 
Choice Ferns for Amateurs. 
Die KS O^IA— continued. 
rachis in their upper portion land sometimes quite down 
to it at their base. Their upper surface is a dark, shining 
green, whereas their underside is of a beautiful glaucous 
colour. The stalks and rachis are more or less densely 
clothed throughout with long, light-brown hairs, and the 
sori, disposed two to twelve to a pinnule, are covered by 
a distinctly two-valved involucre. 
D. Culcita. 
This very striking, large-growing, greenhouse species, 
native of Madeira and the Azores, is popularly known as 
Fig. 89. Dicksonia Culcita, popularly called the Cushion 
Fern ; it is a handsome species for the greenhouse. 
Cushion Fern. This is due to the fact that its crown and 
the base of its fronds are covered with a dense, woolly 
substance of a soft, silky nature, so abundant that it has 
now become an article of commerce. D. Culcita cannot 
be strictly called a Tree Fern, inasmuch as its trunk 
seldom, if ever, rises more than a few inches above the 
ground (Fig. 89). Its fronds, fully l^ft. long, 1ft. broad, 
and tripinn^te^ ar^ borne on stout, upright stalks as 
