THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED FERNS. 
139 
proper drainage; there must be no stagnant water. This being the case it would be preferable to use 
the centre vase for growing plants, and allow this to drain into the lower one, which could be employed 
for cut flowers. The next point is soil: this should be turfy peat, with plenty of sand intermixed, the 
mass resting on a thick layer of broken crocks for drainage. Then the plants, if in a living room, 
must be constantly covered with a bell-glass; and enough water must be given to keep the soil atmo¬ 
sphere moist, but not saturated. 
THE GENERA AND SPECIES OE CULTIVATED PERNS. 
By Hr. J. EOULSTON, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew; and Mr. T. MOORE, F.L.S., &e. 
(Continued from The Gardeners’ Magazine of Botany, p. 332). 
On a review of the whole of the extensive and externally varied group of Ferns, it appears somewhat remark¬ 
able that they should nearly all he included under one sub-order, namely, Polypodiacese. This arises from the 
similarity which exists in this large group in respect to the formation of their spore-cases, which are globose or 
oval, transparent, unilocular, pedicellate, rarely sessile, and furnished with a vertical, usually incomplete, elastic 
rn g, bursting irregularly and transversely. The Gleicheniaceae are distinguished from these by having their 
spore- ^ses globose or pyriform, unilocular, sessile, usually compressed on their interior side, and furnished with 
a complett transverse, horizontal, or occasionally oblique ring, opening vertically. Each sorus is composed of a 
definite number^f spore-cases : from two to six, sometimes eight, rarely more ; and they are naked or furnished 
with indusioid ham The character of their fronds is not less remarkable than the peculiarity of the few spore- 
cases in each sorus ; tmy are of a rigid, wiry, or sub-shrubbv habit, and with one or two exceptions, are always 
dichotomous,* a peculiarity that distinguishes them from nearly all other Ferns. More than thirty species are 
described as belonging to this division, and these, on rather slender characters, are distributed among three genera. 
Their affinity with Polypodiacese lies through Trichomanese, the spore-cases in this group having a complete ring, 
though taking a different direction. The Gleicheniaceae are readily distinguished by their dichotomous fronds, 
and by the paucity of spore-cases in each sorus. 
' LEICHENIA, Smith .—Name commemorative 
Sori round, solitary, naked and superficial, 
£* v> V ^ v vvvyv^ 
Fig. 82. 
of Baron P. F. Von Gleichen, a German botanist, 
or immersed in a concave cyst. Veins pinnate or pinnately 
forked; venules free, the lower exterior one fertile. Fronds 
usually rigid, from six inches to one and a half foot high; 
pinnse dichotomously branched, the branches pinnatifid or pin¬ 
nate, the pinnules or segments small, plane, or revolute and 
cucullate, or plicate and concave, smooth glaucous, squamose 
or tomentose. Rhizome creeping.—This exceedingly beauti¬ 
ful genus of tropical or sub-tropical Ferns, is amongst the most 
difficult to cultivate, appearing to require a closer and somewhat 
drier atmosphere than is generally afforded to other Ferns; 
their slender rhizomes are of a hard dry nature, and usually 
lose their vitality by transportation ; hence, they are rarely 
brought to England in a living state. One species, G. dicarpa , 
of which Fig. 82 represents a small portion of a pinna (natural 
size), with a part of a pinnule (magnified), showing the posi¬ 
tion of the sori, has been cultivated in the nursery of Messrs. 
Loddiges, Hackney, for many years, and has been introduced 
to the Royal Gardens at Kew. It has, likewise, been raised 
from spores. 
I. G. dicarpa. R. Brown.—A neat, elegant, evergreen, 
warm greenhouse Fern, a native of Tasmania. Fronds 
slender, dichotomous, divaricated, a foot or more high, 
light green; branches nearly glabrous, pinnate; pinnse pin¬ 
natifid; segments orbicular, arched, with a broad recurved 
margin. Spore-cases two within the hollow of each seg¬ 
ment. Rachis hairy; lateral adherent to a slender creeping 
rhizome. 
* Platyzoma, a genus containing only one species, inhabiting the tropical parts of New Holland, has pinnate fronds. 
