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CARDEN HINTS FOK AMATEURS. 
different botanists ; but we believe tbem all to refer to forms of the same plant, or at least to plants so closely 
allied that it is impossible to distinguish them ; henee they can only be regarded as synonyms. The following 
list will show the extensive geographical range of the common Bracken over the earth's surface, and the difficulty 
of determining species, from a few specimens, where they are so closely allied : — 
P. aquilina, Litmaus. — Great Britain, Madeira. 
P. aquilina : P. latiuscula, Desvaux. 
P. lanuginosa, Bory. — Ceylon. 
P. lanuginosa, var. capensis. — Mauritius, Abyssinia. 
P. decomposita, Fresh — Sandwich Islands. 
1'. caudata, Linnmis. — Mount Liban (St.Tago de Cuba). 
P. caudata, Linnmw. — Jamaica. 
P. recurvata, Wallicli. — Nepal. 
P. arachnoidea, Kaulfuss. — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 
and Trinidad. 
P. esculenta, Forstcr. — New Holland. 
eNYCHIUM, Kaulfuss. — Name probably derived from onychion, a little claw ; in allusion to the small spur- 
like divisions of the fronds. 
Sori short, linear, continuous, usually becoming confluent, and covering the whole disk between the two 
indusia, forming as it were but one sorus on each segment. Indusium plane, linear, slightly intramarginaL the 
free margins of each conniving over the midrib, and opening as it were by a longitudinal suture. Veins simple, 
direct, free on their apices, combined by a transverse sporangifcrous receptacle, which is seated in the axis of the 
iiiilu-ium. Prowls somewhat deltoid, elongate, acuminate, decompound, from one to one and a half foot long. 
Pihizome creeping. — The three species forming this genus, 
of which only one is at present in cultivation, were ori- 
ginally placed by authors in Pteris, or Lomaria, with 
which they have some affinity ; but on account of their 
very distinct habit, and the peculiar structure of the 
fertile fronds, they have been separated from them. 
They are distinguished from Pteris by the fertile seg- 
ments being so narrow, that the free margins of the 
indusia lap over the midrib, and the sori, although in an 
early stage distinct, subsequently become confluent, and 
cover the whole disk, as in Aerostichum. From Loma- 
ria they differ by their spore-cases being seated in the 
immediate axis of the indusium, similar to Pteris ; 
whereas in Lomaria the receptacle is broad, and occupies 
nearly the whole space between the midrib and axis of 
the indusium. 
Fig. 41 represents a portion of the sterile and fertile 
fronds, natural size, with a smaller portion of the fertile 
frond slightly magnified, showing the position of the sori 
and venation in 0. lucidum. 
1. 0. lucidum, Sprengel (Leptostegia lucida, D.Bon). 
— A very elegant evergreen stove Fern, native of the East 
Indies and Nepal. Sterile frond slender, glabrous, some- 
what triangular, one foot long, bright green, tri-quadri- 
pinnatc ; pinnules triangular ; segments oblong, the apex 
frond glabrous, slender, fifteen inches long; pinna? remote; pinnules triangular, segments 
Tig. 11. 
dentate. Fertile 
small, linear-acuminate, and very narrow. Both form- are lateral, adherent to a creeping rhizome. 
(Pnri.ru lints for Jlnintrnrs. 
JULY. 
711NTOWABD as the season has been for bedding out plants, and smothered as thej are in many 
iJ places with blight, they are. we find upon examination, progressing more favourably at the root 
than might have been expected. All that is required now is to take advantage of leisure moments 
and favourable weather tn destroy insects, to inundate the plants with water, using weak liquid 
manure occasionally, and to keep tin- surface of the beds hoed after watering to prevent scorching ami 
undue evaporation, 'rims managed, the plants will progress rapidly now that tlu dewy nights are 
canning to their aid. and in a week or two our present lamentations will be changed, and we shall 
begin to think linu splendidlj the plants are growing. As, however, much of our success in flower 
g trdening depends upon the strength of the plants planted out, no time must be lost in preparing for 
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