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THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED FERNS. 
Cuxtube. — Among the many useful plants recently introduced, this is certainly one of the 
most valuable, having, among other charms, delicious fragrance to enhance its value, being 
scarcely less sweet than the Gardenia, or Cape Jasmine. Like the Eondeletias, the Eogieras 
require a stove temperature, and considerable bottom heat, to grow them to perfection. In 
receiving a young plant of this species from the nursery, if it is strong and well-rooted, pot it 
immediately, using a compost consisting of turfy peat and leaf-mould, to which a little nice 
turfy loam may be added, with sufficient sand charcoal and potsherds broken small, to keep 
the whole free and open. Pot rather lightly, and not too liberally until the plants are strong; 
and to promote a robust growth, and induce plenty of roots, do not stop the plants more than is 
indispensible to their proper formation, until they attain considerable size. For young plants, 
during the growing season, a dung frame or pit is the most suitable place, as almost all stove 
plants delight in the atmosphere of fermenting materials, more especially if those materials are 
impregnated with ammonia. In such an atmosphere young stove plants will make more progress 
in a few weeks, than they would in months in an ordinary stove. Pot the plants as they 
progress in growth, and an occasional watering with weak manure water will be found very 
beneficial, especially when the pots are full of roots. — A. 
♦ 
THE GENEEA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED EEENS. 
By Mr. J. HOULSTON, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew; and Mr. T. MOOKE, F.L.S., &o. 
Sub-order — PoLTPODiACEiE : Tribe — Polypodies. Sect. H. (Continued). 
BRYNABIA, Sort/. (Polypodii, sp. of Authors). Name said to be derived from Dryades, the goddesses of woods 
and trees, in allusion to the sublime appearance of some of the species, and their native habitation ; but 
more probably from dryinos, oaken, the name 
having been originally applied to the oak- 
leaved species, D. quercifolia. 
Sori round or oblong, naked or squami- 
ferous, produced on the angles or points of 
confluence of numerous venules (compital), 
superficial, or deeply immeised, forming 
elevated protuberances on the upper surface 
of the frond ; transversely uniserial, or ar- 
ranged in one or two oblique rows between 
each two of the primary veins, or irregular. 
Veins pinnate, parallel, or flexuose ; venules 
compoundly anastomosing, producing from 
their sides, variously directed, free sterile 
veinlets, with apices generally rounded or 
club-shaped. Fronds from a few inches to 
four or five feet long, simple pinnatifid or 
pinnate, membranous or coriaceous, glabrous 
or pilose. Bhizorue creeping. — The species 
belonging to this genus have an aspect as 
varied as their geographical distribution; 
some are very membranous, others are re- 
markably rigid in texture, almost without 
parallel amongst Ferns. Many of the more 
beautiful forms are at present unknown in 
cultivation. They all have creeping rhi- 
zomes, and are well adapted for cultivating 
on logs of wood, trunks of trees, or amongst 
light, open materials, where they form very 
beautiful and highly ornamental objects. 
Their compound anastomosing venation is 
common to many other genera, even in the 
same section; but the primary characters 
that distinguish the Drynarias from all asso- 
ciates are : — the naked or squamiferous compital sori, and the compound or zigzag anastomose branching of the 
veins, with sterile veinlets in the areoles. Fig. 15 represents a portion of D. Billardieri (nat. size). 
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