CULTIVATION 
29 
Cete7'ach cor datum, on the contrary, is often found on hot dry 
rocks, when it is indistinguishable from the British Ceterach 
officinarum , and densely scaly, but it also grows on soil under 
thorn trees, etc., and in cultivation is not difficult. Like the 
Notholaenas, it rolls up when dry. 
Ceropteris calomelanos , Gymnogramma argentea and G. 
aurea are horticultural favourites, difficult to transplant from 
the wild state, but not difficult to raise as sporelings in any 
moist greenhouse. The two former are silver-dusted and 
known as Silver Ferns, the latter is yellow-dusted. When 
well grown they make pretty specimen plants, but almost 
require warm greenhouse conditions and well-drained turfy 
loam. 
VlTTARIA ISOETIFOLIA requires the same conditions as 
P. loxogramme , and resembles a hanging tuft of grass. It is 
easily cultivated in moist shade, but is not attractive. 
ELAPHOGLOSSUM is another large genus of varied aspect 
and habit. Those with simple fronds — E. conforme , E. petio- 
latum , E. hybridum , E. Aubertii , E. spatkidatum and E. 
lineare — all belong to moist banks or rocks in dense shade, 
though they also sometimes occur on mossy stumps. They 
are not difficult to grow, but as they produce few fronds, and 
only one at a time, they are never very attractive. E. petio- 
latum var. rupestre , a small rigid form, grows in cracks of 
rocks in sunshine, and produces numerous small fronds. Ste- 
nochlaena tenuifolia is a rampant epiphytal creeper, which 
often takes possession of large trunks in moist shady places 
in the frostless parts of Natal and Zululand. In cultivation 
a large hanging basket is its best place, or a large trunk on 
which it can climb, but it is better to be either in dense bush 
or in a warm greenhouse. It is a pretty fern, the fertile and 
barren fronds being very distinct, but it is so large and un- 
wieldy that it does not lend itself well to usual cultural 
conditions. Acrostichum aureum is never pretty; it is a stiff 
rough fern, growing in tidal mud or close to that, and never 
cultivated here, while in Europe I have never seen it looking 
happy. Unless fora botanical collector, it has no attraction. 
