Pol ysticlium. 
143 
to refer to it P. viviparum, a plant found in Cuba and Jamaica, which owes its name to its 
habit of taking root at the apex of the fronds and producing fresh plants. 
The useful properties of ferns being, 
as we have already shown, very limited, it 
may be well to point 
out that the present 
species has been 
utilised in protecting 
the fruit of the fig- 
tree — an employ- 
ment which is suf- 
ficiently remarkable 
to induce us to extract an account of the modus operandi : — “Just before 
the buds begin to expand,” says a writer in Loudon’s ‘ Gardener’s 
Magazine’ for 1828, “I collect a quantity of Aspidium aculeatum ; the 
stalk of the frond I introduce into a shred, and the point of it is brought 
to the point of the shoot ; it is there wound once or twice round the 
nail near the point of the shoot, taking care to reserve an inch or two 
of the point of the frond to be turned in between the point of the shoot 
and the wall, which is a sufficient fastening, if properly done. A tree, 
when covered in this manner, has at a small distance the appearance 
of being in full leaf. As 
soon as the fruit is set, 
the fern is taken off, to 
prevent injury to the 
young foliage by confining 
it. This is a neat, light, 
and effectual covering, 
which I have practised 
these last ten years.” 
One of the principal 
forms of P. aculeatum is 
that known as lobatum — 
a plant which Mr. Moore 
describes as having “ nar- 
row lance-shaped fronds 
POLYSTICHUM ACULEATUM 
(Var. LON CHITIO ides) . 
one to two feet long ; these 
are subpinnate, i.e., a few 
only of the pinnae de- 
velope pinnules. The an- 
terior basal pinnule is always distinct, consider- 
ably enlarged, and strongly auricled ; but the rest 
of the pinnules are either decurrent or confluent, and not auricled.”* This is by no means an 
uncommon plant ; indeed, it has been found in most districts, and in some, as in most parts 
of Scotland, is commoner than the type. Mr. Moore has not been successful in making 
* “Nature-printed British Ferns” (8vo. ed.), i. 131. 
