6 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
specimens are usually prize-takers in fern exhibitions, as 
they are most graceful as well as rather difficult. They 
have very long wiry rhizomes, trailing on or under the sur- 
face, and are often spoken of as climbing ferns, the rhizomes 
being trained over wirework, etc. Success is best attained 
there with them by using large shallow pans, say two feet 
wide and six inches deep, filled almost full of broken bricks, 
on the top of which a peaty or loamy mixture is used as soil, 
and, of course, they are there grown under glass. Here one 
seldom sees them in cultivation, for the simple reason that 
the cut rhizomes do not readily root again, and take so long 
to do it that the foliage is painfully wretched, if present at all, 
and the plant is usually discarded. But if, instead of be- 
ginning with cut rhizomes, one begins with a seedling plantlet, 
success is more assured, and nice specimens have been secured 
in this way, especially on shady rockery. Constant moisture 
in soil and air is the secret of success, but must be combined 
with abundant drainage and no condition of stagnant saturation. 
HYMENOPHYLLUM and Trichomanes. — These pretty little 
ferns, usually known as Filmy Ferns, are of most delicate cellu- 
lar structure, and grow naturally on moist tree-trunks or on 
rock-faces surrounding waterfalls. Soil is of no importance 
to them, but moist atmosphere and constant trickling water 
are what suits them best, though it is wonderful what dry 
conditions they can endure for a time in their native habitats. 
The species are H. fumarioides , H. inaequale, H. Marlothii , 
H. linear e , H. ciliatum , H. Tunbridgense , H. uncinatum , Tr. 
erosum, T. digitatum , T. montanum var. quercifolium , T. pyxidi- 
ferum , and T. rigidum , and all agree in requiring the above 
conditions. They are not difficult subjects under cultivation, 
but require such moist conditions that a cool shady conser- 
vatory, or even a glass case inside that, is necessary to obtain 
best development. A stone or trunk covered with filmy ferns 
may be removed bodily to this secluded spot, but if that is 
not practicable, remove a large patch with as much soil and 
moss as can be secured, and wire this tightly on to a brick or 
stone and then keep moist, and it will fix itself eventually to 
