358 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 13, 185b. 
feature in some gardens. On the contrary, where the roots of a j 
tree can be made to occupy the bottom of a walk, or other piece I 
of ground not under cultivation, and its top likewise not being 
detrimental to anything near it—the tree then is not only ex- | 
disable, but highly recommendable. Tunnel-shaped trellises j 
have become fashionable of late: but where a large quantity of 
fruit has to be grown with the least possible trouble, be assured 
that large full-grown trees are the best to produce this. Training in 
fantastic forms may please the eye; but the larger fruits, as Apples, 
Pears, Plums, Cherries, and the like, bear the most plentiful 
crops when not too much cut. This, however, is foreign to the 
subject in hand, excepting so far as to give additional reasons for 
not having too many fruit trees (trained or otherwise) in the 
kitchen garden; and be sure to keep the more voracious timber 
trees at a safe distance. Shelter from cold winds is doubtless 
often urged as a reason for having them so near ; and when the 
belt in the rear of these is narrow and thin, it is not prudent to 
cut much away without due consideration : but where there is 
plenty to work upon, let the axe and mattock be freely used, 
and it will be found that trees at fifty yards’ distance from a 
wall shelter it nearly as much as when only at fifteen yards, while 
their shade is less hurtful. The same may be said of buildings 
and other towering objects. J. Robsoh. 
NOTES ON FERNS. 
Ceeatodacttlis osmudioides. J. Sm. (Synonyme —Llama 
cordifolia, Lagasca). Fronds glaucous, tri-pinnate, the lower 
part sterile, the upper and fertile part very distinct. Sterile 
pinnules rhomboidal-ovate, margin somewhat thickened, serrated. 
Veins simple or forked, the veinlets extending a short distance 
beyond the point of the serrature, so as to appear like a short 
horny point. The fertile pinnules are rolled up, so as to cover 
the son; the sporangia spring from the whole length of the 
veinlets in these contracted pinnules. Stipes covered with long, 
white, almost-transparent, chaffy scales, passing into long, white, 
hairs on the upper part. 
This truly beautiful plant is a native of Mexico, and was in¬ 
troduced to our gardens about two years ago by M. Linden, the 
enterprising director of the Botanic Garden of Brussels, to whom 
we are indehted for so many of our best new plants. The beau¬ 
tiful glaucous colour of the fronds and the graceful habit make 
this plant decidedly distinct from any other Fern, and a valuable 
addition to our collections. The fronds are said to attain the 
height of more than three feet; but no plant I have yet seen has 
been more than eighteen inches high. The name means “ horny 
fingered,” and refers to the appearance of the fertile portions. 
It appears to come freely from spores. 
Asplenium placcidum. Eorst. (Synonyme —Farea odon¬ 
tites , Willd.; Ccenopteris flaccida , Thunb.) Fronds two and a 
half to three feet long, drooping, pale green, coriaceous, lanceo¬ 
late, bi-pinnate. Pinnules almost linear, obtuse. Veins obscure 
—that is, imbedded in the substance of the frond. One vein in 
each piunule, extending nearly to the apex and bearing one sorus 
to each pinnule, even to the lowest segments of the frond. Sorus 
covered by a linear indusium attached to the vein by the lower 
side, and which is forced open by the growth of the sporangia. 
Stipes rather thick, slightly channelled on the upper side, and 
having a few brown scales towards the base. The whole frond 
very viviparous, producing young plants plentifully upon its 
upper surface (not, as is usual in other plants, in the axils of the 
pinnules or serratures). The young plants appear first as minute 
buds, which in the course of a short time throw out two or three 
small fronds, and as soon as these attain a few inches in length 
they drop off and commence a separate existence. 
This well-knowm Eern is one of the best of the whole family 
for cultivation in a basket, its long flaccid fronds drooping grace¬ 
fully on all sides ; it also possesses another very advantageous 
quality—being somewhat of a succulent and leathery texture, it 
it is well adapted for cultivation in the dry air of a living-room, 
in which situation it will thrive for a long time if carefully 
watered. It grows wild in many places in the southern hemi¬ 
sphere, and, therefore, requires only protection from the frost. 
Dr. Hooker, in his “Flora of New Zealand,” says it is the most 
variable Fern in the island, and that many pages might be 
devoted to a description of the various forms it assumes. This 
may account for the number of synonymes in which it rejoices—■ 
some ten or a dozen in number. It is often grown under the name 
of A. odontites; but at Wentworth and elsewhere that name is 
applied to a much smaller-growing variety, with narrower seg¬ 
ments, and which is never viviparous. It may easily be increased 
from spores ; but the quickest and best way is to lay one of its 
fronds on the surface of moist soil, without detaching it from the 
parent plant, when the young ones already formed will quickly 
develope themselves. 
Acbostichum AtntETJM. Lin. (Synonyme— A. incequale, 
Willd.) Fronds three to seven feet long, pinnate, glabrous, 
coriaceous, and of a pale green colour. Pinnce alternate, lanceo¬ 
late, entire, with the margin somewhat thickened; the lower 
ones wedge-shaped at the base, and pctiolated; the upper ones 
adnate or slightly decurrent. Each pinnae has a prominent costa or 
midrib, but the other veins are of uniform thickness and beautifully 
reticulated, making a complete network. Sometimes the upper 
pinnae are fertile, at others the entire frond; in this case they 
are more erect than the sterile fronds and the pinnae narrower. 
The sori amorphous, densely covering with their bright brown 
sporangia the whole underside of the pinnae. The fronds are 
produced from the apex of a short, thick, erect caudex ; the roots 
are thick and succulent, produced freely at the base of the stipes. 
This, which is one of the noblest Ferns we possess, is a native 
of the swamps of all the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the 
world. Slightly varying in form it is found in America, in the 
West Indian and-Polynesian Islands, in South Africa, m Ceylon, 
and India. The most suitable place for its cultivation is a 
tropical aquarium; with its pot standing in the water in which 
the Victoria is grown, it makes as splendid an object as can 
possibly be conceived. With its fertile, brown fronds, six feet 
high, standing nearly erect in the centre, and the shorter, delicate 
green, sterile ones gracefully drooping around, it makes a speci¬ 
men which once seen can never be forgotten. In winter it should 
be kept somewhat drier. It ought to be renewed from spores 
occasionally, as it may otherwise become exhausted like Ferny- 
dictum and other strong-growing species. The plant lately in¬ 
troduced from the Belgian nurseries under the name of Acro- 
stichum inmquale appears to differ but little, if at all, from this 
one, and is, therefore, scarcely worth growing in the same col¬ 
lection.— Haul. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
COLOUR OF YOUNG GOLD FISH — PROPAGATING 
THE PAMPAS GRASS — PLANTS HARDY IN 
IRELAND. 
“ I have a fountain in my pleasure ground, in the basin, four 
feet deep, in which three years ago were put a dozen gold and 
silver fish. They have produced young each year, and we have 
some now nearly as large as the parents, with others not larger 
than pinkeens ; but, large or small, they are all nearly black ! 
No other fish or fish-spawn could have access to it. The water 
is supplied from a well and through a pipe nearly 200 feet long. 
Can it be the coldness or hardness of the water which prevents 
the young ones assuming the proper colour? The old seem 
strong and healthy. 
“ I have a very fine plant of the Pampas Grass, from which 
I want to get some others. My gardener has tried and failed 
the last two years. 
“You like to hear what greenhouse or half-hardy plants live 
over the winter in various places. Here, four miles south of 
Dublin, there have lived out, wholly unprotected the last three 
years, Eccremocarpus, Fucomis punctata; all the best Fuchsias, 
whether red or white; Geraniums Punch, Fair Felen and Rose- 
scented ; Orange and Cantua dependens, sheltered with branches 
of Fir and a hay-band.”— Cabbie Cathol. 
[The water has nothing to do with the dark colour of the young 
goldfish. They are always dark-coloured at first, and the golden 
colpur comes over them at ages varying with the constitution of 
the fish. 
We have consulted Mr. A. Henderson, of the Pine Apple 
Place Nursery, upon the propagation of the Pampas Grass, and 
his reply is as follows:—“ Young plants of the Pampas Grass 
are far preferable for division to the old plants—such as two-year 
seedlings rather than those of age, planted out in the open air 
and flowering. Though, if care be taken, the larger plants may 
be divided just now by taking off the side-branches, with a few 
roots attached; these to be potted and kept in a cool frame 
during the winter. Success is then without doubt. Young 
