THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
65 
POLYSTICHUM LONCHITIS. 
^jOL Y STICHUM LONCHITIS, the Alpine shield fern, 
or holly fern, is seldom seen growing wild by fern 
cultivators, on account of its peculiarly local and moun- 
tain habit, growing, as it does, at an elevation of one 
thousand to three thousand feet. It also ranks amongst 
our rarer British ferns, with us being only found in the fissures of 
rocks near the summits of the highest and bleakest mountains of 
our country. It is a native of Europe, generally extending even as 
far north as Lapland and Iceland. It is found also in North 
America, Ivamtschatka, and Asia Minor. 
The bleak, cold, exposed situations in which Polystichum lon- 
chitis grows proclaim this fern to be the most hardy of the British 
species. It is an evergreen species. Its fronds are exceedingly 
rigid, and well calculated to resist the blast of those exposed moun- 
tains on which it luxuriates. The length of the frond is usually 
from six to eighteen inches, occasionally longer ; the colour, deep 
green above, paler beneath. The fructification is mostly confined 
to the upper half of the frond, the sori being situated in a line on 
either side of the mid-vein, about midway between the mid-vein and 
the margin. 
The mountain travellers occasionally meet with this plant in 
places difficult of access, and even where accessible, frequently most 
difficult to be removed from its native wilds. It is usually seen in 
perfection in September and October. 
HARDY AND ORNAMENTAL SPRING-FLOWERING 
SHRUBS. 
HIMONANTHUS FRAGRANS amd C. Grandiflorus. 
— Though these are not, strictly speaking, spring 
flowering plants, yet, from their value and interest in 
mid-winter, they are worthy of notice here, forming, as 
they do, a connecting link with plants which succeed 
them. They are, as is well known, adapted for wall culture, and 
are the onlv winter-flowering hardy shrubs that possess fragrant 
flowers ; they therefore deserve a place in every garden. The 
blossoms are principally produced on ripened laterals and branches 
of the current year’s growth, and fertility in these is encouraged by 
pruning the shoots back (but sparingly), until a proportionate 
number of flower-bearing branches is formed. In replenishing a 
lady’s portable flower-basket, ora drawing-room artistic flower-vase, 
during the late autumn, and spring months, they are worthy of a 
place with the forced flowers of the season, as hyacinths, lily of the 
valley, violets, etc. 
Jasmindm: ncdifloeum. — Besides being well adapted for early 
March. 5 
