63 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 30, 1860. 
FLOWERING PLANTS UNDER VINES. 
Could I grow Vines in my greenhouse without hurting my 
plants ? My employers are anxious to have the Vines, but not 
if they would interfere with the growing of the Fuchsias and 
Pelargoniums and other plants for competition. The house is 
a lean-to, 32 feet long and 10 feet wide, 6 feet high in front and 
10 feet at the back ; the front wall being 3 feet of glass, and 
3 feet built with brick. My employers propose to have one 
Vine up each of the rafters, which are 4 feet 3 inches apart. If 
you think they would succeed, please to name the sorts that 
would be likely to do without any fire, as there are no means of 
heating the house.— Greensand. 
[Of course you do not mean to keep your Geraniums in this 
house, which you cannot heat in winter. The Fuchsias might 
be laid on the floor, and covered up in severe weather. The 
Vines will just so far interfere with Geraniums and Fuchsias 
that in dull weather in May and onwards there will be more 
shade for the plants, and this will be more prejudicial to the 
Geraniums than the Fuchsias. With a little care, and setting 
the plants rather thinly, and spurring the Vines, good specimens 
of both can be grown under such circumstances, and especially 
of the Fuchsias. 
The Cottage Gardener volumes commence with the first 
Tuesday in October, and the first Tuesday in April. The 
binding in one or two volumes is a matter of taste and con- 
venience.] 
NOTES ON FERNS. 
Ceratopteeis thalictroides. Brogn. (Synonyme— Fllo- 
hocarpus oleraceus, Kaulf.) This is a very curious, aquatic, 
annual Fern, with delicate green membranous fronds, viviparous 
in a high degree. Sterile fronds bi-pinnatifid, with oblong ob¬ 
tuse segments, drooping, about eighteen inches long. Fertile 
fronds two feet or more in height, erect, much divided with 
linear divisions. Veins of the sterile fronds distinctly reticulated; 
those of the fertile ones have the same character, but developed 
in a less degree. Sori produced upon the oblique lateral veins, 
so as to form a line on each side of the midrib, and covered by 
an indusium formed by the reflexed margin of the frond. Stipes 
somewhat square, furrowed, very succulent. The vernation is 
fasciculate, and what little rhizome is produced is erect. 
This highly curious and interesting Fern is an inhabitant of 
pools and other quiet waters in the tropics of both hemispheres. 
It often grows wholly submerged, and is so very prolific, that, if 
a frond be broken off and thrown into water, it is sure to pro¬ 
duce several young plants. It grows freely from spores also. 
To be cultivated in perfection it should be grown in good, rich, 
loamy soil, and the pot half plunged in water in the stove. It is 
somewhat apt to damp off in winter : a few young plants should, 
therefore, be secured in autumn, and these should be kept mode¬ 
rately moist—that is, only a little wetter than ordinary Ferns ; 
not standing in water during winter. As soon as the days begin 
to lengthen give it a moderate shift, and, when established in the 
fresh soil, place the pot in a feeder, or saucer, of water, and as 
the season advances treat it as an aquatic. 
The name Ceratopteris is derived from the horn-like divisions 
of the fertile fronds ; and its former name, Ello'oocarpus, refers 
to the same thing—meaning fruit enclosed in a pod. 
Onoclea sensibilis. Linn. Sterile fronds somewhat drooping, 
triangular, pinnately pinnatifid, glabrous, of a pale green colour, 
two feet long by eighteen inches in width. Pinnae oblong-lanceo¬ 
late, sinuate or dentate, the upper ones decurrent. Fertile fronds 
erect, contracted, bi-pinnate, the pinnules having their margins 
incurved so as to assume the appearance of sessile rugose berries, 
usually twelve to eighteen on each of the pinnae. Veins in the 
sterile fronds reticulated; in the fertile simple and free. Sori 
doubly protected, first by a very thin membranous covering, and 
then by the revolute margins of the pinnules; about eight or 
nine sori in each pinnule. Stipes glabrous. Rhizome creeping, 
and spreading rapidly under ground. 
It is strange that a plant so elegant and distinct as this 
<c Sensitive Fern” should be so seldom seen in our gardens, 
particularly as it has been so long introduced (1799), and may 
now be bought at so cheap a rate. It is a native of Virginia 
and other parts of the United States of America. Nothing can 
be more simple than its culture ; it only requires a deep, moist, 
peaty soil, and a shady situation. Under these circumstances it 
soon establishes itself, and grows rapidly; it is quite hardy, and 
may easily be propagated by division. It is a deciduous, or more 
properly herbaceous, Fern, the fronds dying down in the autumn. 
Its sterile fronds are produced early in the season, but the fertile 
ones do not appear till July. 
The name Onoclea is derived from onos a kind of vessel, and 
hleis to close or shut. The same name was applied by Pliny and 
other old writers to a very different plant, a species of Boragi- 
nacese. Linnaeus gave it the specific name, thinking that the 
fronds were very sensitive and liable to injury—a supposition not 
proved by facts now we are acquainted with the plant in its 
living state. It may be transplanted or divided in the winter 
without the least fear of injury. 
Asplenium; eormosum. Willd. Fronds nine inches to a 
foot in length, membranaceous, pinnate, leafy to the base. Pinnae 
sessile, the lower ones triangular, those towards the apex of the 
frond lanceolate, somewhat auricled on the upper side; deeply 
incised, particularly along the anterior margin. Sori short, linear, 
covered by an oval membranous indusium. Veins forking, free. 
Stipes ebenous— i.e., black and shining. Rhizome erect; verna¬ 
tion fasciculate. 
This beautiful little stove Fern is looked upon with justice as 
the gem of every collection in which it is found. It is a native 
of tropical America (Brazil, New Grenada, Panama, Mexico, &c.), 
and several of the West Indian islands : the same plant has, it is 
said, been found in India and Ceylon. If this be really the case, 
it is another proof of the great geographical range Ferns have, 
compared with flowering plants. It is not difficult to cultivate, 
but it should not be over-potted, and by no means exposed to 
draughts of cold or dry air. It was a year or two since one of 
the scarcest of Ferns; but several nurserymen having lately sue* 
ceeded in raising a good stock of it from spores, it may now be 
bought at a moderate price. It forms a very elegant centre plant 
for a Wardian Case; and as it will not overgrow its position, it 
very suitable for this purpose.— Karl. 
CULTURE OF SOLANUM CAPSICASTRUM. 
The following detail of my success in cultivating this beauti¬ 
ful biennial plant may be useful to many of your correspondents. 
In January last I sowed the seeds in pans, placed them in 
bottom heat, and kept them there till the plants were large 
enough to be removed into tliumb-pots. After this they were 
placed in a warm pit, kept near the glass to keep them from 
drawing up till they had filled their pots with roots. I then 
shifted them to four-inch pots, plunged them into sawdust up 
to the rims of the pots : they soon made very vigorous growth. 
I applied water by the syringe daily, as I find this plant very 
subject to tbe attacks of the red spider. 
At the beginning of April I was obliged to repot the plants 
again into six-inch pots, plunging as above, and still keeping the 
syringe at work till the plants showed well for blooming, which 
was in June. While in bloom I kept them free from syringing, 
and at a much higher temperature till they had set their fruit. 
I then repotted them in eight-inch pots, in good, rich turfy loam, 
with plenty of leaf mould and sand, and kept them watered with 
weak liquid manure, and well watering them with the syringe 
morning and evening till the berries began to colour. I then 
removed them to a warm greenhouse, stopping all the points 
except the leading shoot. The plants are now nearly eighteen inches 
high and fourteen inches across, with from forty to fifty berries 
on them, and by the end of next month I hope to see all the 
berries quite ripe. They will then have a beautiful appearance. 
I know no plant, with the exception of the Ardisias for decorating 
purposes that has so seasonable an appearance at Christmas 
time as the Solanum capsicastrum.— Thos. Rawbone, Gardener, 
Rarlaston Fall . 
CYPRIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS—BLACK TRIPOLI 
GRAPE—RABY CASTLE CURRANT. 
Mr. Appleby, in his article on “ Hardy Orchids,” recommends 
the beautiful Cypripedium calceolus to be grown in “ sandy fibry 
peat.” I think that Mr. Appleby has never seen this beautiful 
plant in its native “Deans” of Durham, or he would have told 
another tale; and, if my memory is correct, he fell into the same 
error when writing on the subject some years back. I am aware 
that C. calceolus will live in peat; but, to grow it to perfection, 
it requires very strong limestone clay—as it is invariably found 
