CULTIVATION. 
357 
part having been introduced from Guiana by Mr. 
Backhouse, of York, and on account of their slow 
increase, plants of them are yet very rare : they are 
natives of generally the lower regions of tropical vege- 
tation, growing in open places amongst herbage of 
small plants and grass, or on the skirts of woods, and 
sometimes under the shade of trees, the soil being 
very poor, sometimes almost nothing but sand or 
stony debris , in which their sarmentums are partially 
hypogeous, the soil and air never being much below 
the temperature of 80°, and although almost daily 
subject to the influence of tropical thunder-showers, 
yet, on account of the nature of the soil, the surface is 
never over saturated. Finding that they do not flourish 
under the medium temperature of a Tropical Fern House, 
it therefore is necessary that a special part of the house, 
on the principle of a Wardian Case, should be adapted, 
so that a moist air of 80° may be steadily maintained, 
and the plants occasionally sprinkled overhead, taking 
care that no superfluity remain in the soil, which 
should be no more than moist. 
Like Lindscea, the curious and interesting genus 
Schizcea does not readily conform to cultivation ; 
plants of Schizcea elegans have often been freely im- 
ported from Trinidad, and although tried in various 
ways in high and moderate temperatures, it cannot be 
said they have yet become established. Under the 
Wardian Case, the native imported fronds remain for 
a considerable time fresh, and sometimes new fronds 
show themselves, but fail to come to maturity. In a 
letter lately received from Mr. Prestoe, in Trinidad, he 
informs me that the Schizcea elegans grows in solitary 
patches in loamy soil, covered with three or four 
