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THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
PLATYCERIUM. — These Stag’s-horn ferns, frequent in culti- 
vation in Europe under stove treatment, are seldom seen here. 
They are distinctly epiphytal, and huge masses four feet across, 
of the thalloid barren fronds, surmounted by the fertile stag’s- 
horn fronds, are occasionally to be seen far up a tree in the 
forests of tropical South Africa, in Rhodesia and Portuguese 
East Africa; P. bifurcatum and P. angolense occur. In culti- 
vation they require warm greenhouse treatment and much 
patience, and are best treated when wired on to a living stem 
and exposed to a good deal of sunshine and moisture. 
TODEA BARBARA is a robust, somewhat rigid fern which 
makes a short stout tree-stem, and often forms a nice speci- 
men in cultivation. It grows usually in moist, swampy, open 
bushland, or even in dry open country, many stems together, 
and frequently has to endure grass fires, which it does without 
sustaining serious injury. In cultivation, well-drained leaf 
mould or loam suits it ; it stands a good deal of sunshine, 
and likes a constant supply of water, and a fairly high 
temperature. 
OSMUNDA REGALIS is what is known in Britain as the 
Flowering Fern, on account of the fertile pinnae being very 
distinct from the barren. It grows on the banks of streams, 
fully exposed, but quite above the water-level, and loses its 
fronds during winter. Open turfy loam, well drained, is what 
it likes, and no fern is more easily grown into a nice specimen, 
but it is at its best only for a month or two every year. 
SCHIZAEA tenella and S'. pectinata are small grass-like 
ferns, found among grasses and rushes in swampy streams ; 
they have no attractive feature as ferns, and are only culti- 
vated as botanical curiosities, in similar swampy sites. 
ANEIMIA is another genus of so-called “Flowering Ferns,” 
having distinct fertile pinnae. The species occur in loam in 
open woodlands and are not difficult to cultivate, though not 
specially attractive. There are three South African species, 
A. tomentosa , A. anthriscifolia , and A. Dregeana. 
