October 17, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
105 
greenhouse and soil such as most ordinary Ferns like, 
and see that they suffer not for want of water, and these 
will he all right. They are good for enduring hard¬ 
ships, and last well in rooms where gas is used. The 
same remark may also be applied to the Aspleniums 
above named. 
Pteris scaberula is a close, compact-habited, and 
elegant little fern, nearly hardy, which will furnish the 
sides of a basket quicker than any plant I know. In 
texture its fronds somewhat resemble the Litobrochias, 
and it soon spreads out over a large area when planted 
out. It will grow freely and well all the summer long 
in a close moist frame without heat, so that it should 
receive a good deal of attention from those who have not 
much heat at command. It is also beautifully adapted 
for cuttings for bouquet or button-hole purposes, and 
being hardily grown and of a suitable size, it is thus a 
very useful little plant. It is, in short, one of those 
cheap, good, and easily-grown plants which will satisfy 
the masses. A very familiar plant is 
Woodwardia radicals, and which attains large 
proportions. This is a most handsome Fern, and one 
which, as a basket plant in the spacious conservatory, 
has few equals. Its fronds attain as much as 4 ft. or 5 ft. 
in length, probably more, even, than this, terminated 
by a bulbiferous crown, from which, in time, a new 
plant springs, which, in turn, is gifted with similar 
reproductive powers. A grand plant, this, for the large 
rockery under glass, where its huge fronds can be seen 
to advantage arching over some great stone with tropical 
effect, and the rapid growth it makes in a good deep 
soil is surprising. There is also a crested form equally 
good, and both are comparatively hardy. 
Here, then, I have given a few of the best basket 
Ferns known to me, though those enumerated do not 
by any means exhaust the list, as this was not my in¬ 
tention. There are plenty of others, such, for example, 
as Lomaria Gibba, which, with a topping of Selaginella 
over the surface of the soil and a few bits around the 
basket, makes, when established, a really good basket 
plant, and a useful one, too, for many jiurposes. 
With regard to their management, I may say that 
there is little difference between basket plants and pot 
plants. A moss lining will, however, be necessary in 
the former case to keep the soil together ; and as to the 
most suitable soil, equal parts of peat and loam will 
suitall those mentioned, save the Lomaria, Woodwardia, 
and the crested Pterises, which will be better suited in 
loamy soil to which a fair sprinkling of sand may be 
added, making all quite firm. Wire baskets will do 
for the majority. The strongest growers, however, will 
need something stronger, all of which may be bought 
cheaply in various designs, either from ironmongers or 
horticultural sundriesmen. — J. 
BOTANICAL MARE’S-NESTS— 
CHIEFLY FUNGOLOGICAL. 
( Continued from p. 92. J 
Perhaps some of my hearers may say that the writers 
to certain gardening papers are less worthy of notice than 
writers to some of the literary and scientific papers, 
perhaps they are, so let us turn to a paper which is 
esteemed as an oracle of learning by some of the lesser 
booksellers, I mean the “ Athenceum.” On the 11th 
March, 1876, this paper published an account of Pro¬ 
fessor De Bary's Potato discoveries : the article began 
by terming the Professor “ a distinguished foreigner,” 
and then said the ‘ 1 conidia of the Potato fungus, when 
shed, leave swellings on the branches,” and that the 
zoospores are “ provided with a cilium.” Better, how¬ 
ever, follows, for the bookseller’s instructor said the 
“distinguished foreigner” on planting oospores or 
resting-spores in Potatos obtained “minute plants, 
which “conducted themselves exactly like zoospores.” 
Could anything be more rich and ridiculous, planting 
oospores and obtaining minute plants conducting them 
selves not only like, but “exactly like” zoospores. 
These rare plants ought to be placed in the Guildhall 
Museum with the Lord Mayor’s “ marine plant ” and 
moistened daily with turtle soup. One more sentence 
must be given, the bookseller’s oracle says that on the 
“distinguished foreigner” experimenting with the 
p'ants just mentioned on the “moistened legs” of 
dead flies, the complete phases of their development 
“was watched,” that is, the phases in development 
of the legs of dead flies. Thank Zeus I live in my own 
country, so am not a “distinguished foreigner” to be 
shown up as such to Englishmen in the Athenceum. 
Professor De Bary’s Discoveries. 
Professor De Bary has discovered several mare’s- 
nests in reference to the Potato fungus ; for instance 
in one of the Royal Agricultural Society’s official 
reports it is said that the Professor “expresses san¬ 
guine hopes that he has at last discovered the 
certain nids or resting places of the oospores, ” but the 
Professor now confesses that he has never made any 
such discovery, the assumed discovery in the Agri¬ 
cultural Society’s report is therefore a mare’s-nest. 
In 1874-1875 it was stated by a high authority 
before the British Association, that Professor De Bary 
had discovered an alternation of generations in the 
fungus of the Potato disease, and that the fungus passed 
part of its existence on Clover, in the style of the 
fungus of corn mildew on Barberry bushes. A few 
persons believed in this assumed discovery ; nothing 
is too absurd for the gullibility of some people. 
No one believes in the Clover business now, and the 
discovery, or the report of the discovery, was an 
unmitigated mare’s-nest. 
In 1872 Dr. Alfred Carpenter reported to the Times 
on the discovery of a curious mare’s-nest, discovered by 
himself; he said he had found that “the tuber was 
planted with the resting spore in its eye,” as if a 
Potato (like Polyphemus) had only one eye, and this 
eye was naturally selected for assault by the knowing 
resting spore. In describing Potatos, Dr. Carpenter 
said they were like “ highly-fed, richly-seasoned human 
beings, whenever fever gets hold of them they rot most 
rapidly.” Dr. Carpenter, in a subsequent letter to the 
Times, solaced the readers of that paper by telling 
them that “the Potato disease may be prevented as 
certainly as typhoid fever or cholera may be prevented 
among human beings. ” It would, therefore, seem to be 
quite an easy job to stamp out cholera, typhoid fever, 
and Potato disease, but unfortunately the author (no 
doubt with the reticence common to great men) omitted 
to mention his easy mode of prevention. 
The Colorado Beetle. 
In the Times report of the International Potato Show 
for 1878, it was said that the “farmers ” of new varieties 
of Potatos get new forms “by mingling the pollen of 
the blossoms ” ; the female was dispensed with. In 
the same article it was said, that to avoid the intro¬ 
duction of the Colorado beetle from America, American 
Potatos were raised from American seed in this country, 
but “not imported direct,” as if the beetles would fall 
off the seeds in some other country before reaching 
here, if the seeds were taken in a circuitous way. In 
a leader subsequently published in the Daily Telegraph, 
the above fallacies (with several others equally or even 
more absurd) were plaguerised and reproduced almost 
word for word, and published as original. 
In 1872, the Times in reporting on the Potato dis¬ 
ease said that the Academy of Sciences of France had 
arrived at the conclusion that the germ of the malady 
was due to the presence to two insects, the Aphis 
vastator (vast-tater, W. G. S.) and Eupterix picta. 
But we need not go to the non-scientifie Times for 
blunders, for only a week or two ago, oue of the 
Agricultural'papers published a letter, explanatory of 
the nature of the Potato disease; the writer said “it 
is well known the disease consists ofanimaleula (sic)— 
But how they come is a mystery, and how they can be 
destroyed is yet to be discovered. ” 
Last year Mr. Laxton, of Bedford, succeeded in con¬ 
joining by grafting Potato stems and the stems of 
Solanum dulcamara. A leading horticultural paper in 
commenting on this, said, the graft had been made 
with Deadly Nightshade,' and that nobody but Mr. 
Laxton would have thought of operating upon the 
“Deadly Nightshade.” At the same time, another 
writer to the same paper in describing a disease of 
Cucumbers, said, “ he was ‘convinced’ it was caused 
by a superabundance of gases, evaporating from un¬ 
healthy soil.” 
Davallta tenuifolia Veitohiaka. 
