HARDY FERNS AND MOSSES. 
309 
embracing: some of our commonest ferns, so useful for the 
more exposed parts of the fernery and for filling: up odd, shady 
corners where choicer varieties would not be trusted. They 
have the advantage of being: evergreen, though in town gardens 
this is often not very apparent. One of our native aspidiums 
has sported amazingly and yielded some most lovely varieties, 
rivalling in beauty the best things the exotics can produce. 
These should be placed in positions where their beauty can be 
developed and seen to the best advantage. North America 
and Japan have also favoured us with one or two good things, 
some closely following in form our native species. For the 
better varieties a mixture in equal parts of loam, leaf-mould, 
peat and sand should be provided. Propagation is effected by 
spore sowing, by division of the crowns in early spring, and, 
where produced, by plantlets formed on the lower part of the 
midribs of the older fronds. A prominent feature in these 
ferns is their wealth of rich brown chaffy scales clothing the 
midrib on its under surface. Aspidium [Polystichum] acrosti- 
choides is a distinct North American species, in which the 
upper fertile portion of the fronds is contracted ; it is about 
i 8 in. in height. It has yielded a handsome crested variety 
known as A. a. grandiceps. A. [P.] aculeatum is our British 
Prickly Shield fern, with handsome, pleasingly divided fronds, 
the divisions ending in little hair-like spines. Height about 
2ft. It has yielded but few varieties. A. [P.] angulare, the 
Soft Prickly Shield fern, similar in form, has, however, yielded 
many and magnificent variations, the cream of which are 
plumosum, with broad, handsome, many times divided fronds ; 
proliferum Crawfordianum, bulbil-bearing ; tripinnatum ele- 
gans, moss-like in its divisions ; Bayliae, dark fronds ; cristatum 
gracile Jonesi, crested; cristatum Barnesi, also crested ; divisi- 
loburn plumosum, very finely divided ; grandiceps, beautifully 
crested. Kinds more curious than beautiful also abound, as 
cornutum, horned ; lineare, narrow and depauperated. A. 
[Cyrtomium] falcatum is a Japanese kind, wfith once-divided 
fronds and broad, pointed divisions ; a still broader form is 
caryotideum ; a narrower and perhaps more elegant kind is 
Fortunei; pendulum is of drooping habit. Though normally 
evergreen, these ferns lose their fronds outdoors in England, 
and are all the better for a covering of litter or bracken to 
protect in very severe weather. A. [P.] Lonchitis is our native 
Holly fern, and is a mountain form of difficult culture, needing 
perfect drainage, and at the same time to be constantly moist ; 
it has once-divided, stiff, leathery, dark-green fronds. A 
[P. ] munitum is the North American counterpart of A. Lon- 
chitis, but taller, stronger, and of easier culture ; height about 
2ft. A. [P] setosum is the Japanese counterpart of A. angu- 
