88 
THE BOOK OP 
alone. Progress at first is slow, but in the course of a 
season the rhizomes will begin to spread ; new fronds will 
arise here, there, and yonder, and ere long the full loveliness 
of each species will come to light, the Hymenophyllum 
forming a dense mossy carpet, while the taller fronds of 
T. radicans will form an emerald thicket above them. Some 
growers advocate a daily wetting overhead, but if they be 
installed in a cool position and kept very close, we advocate 
only an occasional wetting, and that with perfectly clean ra n 
water, as preferable to frequent drenchings. The fructification 
of these species is very peculiar, the Hymenophyllums have the 
spores in urn-shaped receptacles standing on short stalks by 
themselves on the branches forming the pinnae, while the 
Bristle Fern is so named because they are borne upon bristly 
projections, partly enveloped in cup-like receptacles embedded 
in the frond edges. 
As regards varieties, the Hymenophyllums have done but 
little, occasionally ramose forms are found, but none, so far as 
we know, are constant in this respect, and in any case it 
it makes no practical difference in the appearance of the mass. 
T. radicans, on the other hand, has been fairly liberal in varietal 
forms, though a good crested one still remains unfound ; the best 
are : — 
Name. 
Where Found 
or Raised. 
Finder or Reiser and 
Date. 
Deccrif. tier.. 
alatum 
.. Ireland 
Clapham 
Conspicuously winged. 
Amlrewsii. . 
Glen Caragli 
W. Andrews .. 
Fronds nar. ow and pinnta 
distant. 
Backhouseii 
.. Wales .. 
Backhouse 
Intermediate between 
Amlrewsii and dilatation. 
Cambrieum 
Wales .. 
Rowbotliam 
Similar, hut more caudate. 
crispum . . 
Ivillarncy 
Col. A. S. II. Luwc . . 
Crispate and irregularly 
ramose, very distinct. 
Dense fronded. 
densum 
— 
Stansfield 
dilatalum . . 
— 
Backhouse 
A splendid large foliosc 
form. 
dissectum.. 
.. — 
Stansfield .. .. • 
Finely cut, beautiful. 
proliferum 
. . Eillarncy 
— 
Occasionally bears bulbils 
likeasplenium hulbiferum. 
The writer raised a num- 
ber from such buihils, but 
none have subsequently 
appeared. 
Though literally foreign to our theme, we cannot help 
suggesting the association of the above v ith that exquisite yet 
hardy New Zealand Filmy Fern, Todea superba. A sunken 
brick pit, red brick for preference, with T. superba a yard 
across in all its glory in the centre, the Hymenophyllum 
as a carpet around it and T. radicans climbing up the 
walls, as it readily does with the aid of its creeping 
rhizomes, is a frame for a picture which we will not attempt 
to describe. 
