NOVELTIES AND SPECIALTIES 
3 
Polypodium Mandaianum (Manda) 
Among- the multitude of plants which I have introduced during my career, there Is 
none that has impressed me as much as the Polypodium which we are offering now for 
delivery in August and September of 1913. 
It is a plant that has grown in favor from year to year, and in its years of propagation 
developing new beauty and an additional quality as plant or cut green for decoration. 
Great admiration of the plant is shown by every one who has had the fortune to see 
this wonderful plant growing or exhibited. It has carried everything before it, and stands 
to-day as the First Novelty not only in America, but with the whole horticultural world. 
The plant is very free-growing and makes beautiful specimens in all sizes, as the 
photograph shows the plant in 3-inch pots, 5 and 8-inch pans, and large specimens in 
20-inch tubs. 
It is also a basket plant. A plant fastened on a piece of bark or cork will surpass in 
beauty and elegance any stag-horn fern. 
Planted on any old stump or tree fern trunk, it will soon make a head that will rival 
any tree fern in cultivation, and equally useful when planted on the wall of the greenhouse, 
where it will attach itself and make a dense covering of choice beautiful glaucus foliage. 
Not only as a plant, but also in a cut state, it is most valuable for fine decoration, 
being, perhaps, the most lasting green in existence, for I had fronds keep fresh eight 
weeks in water, which is remarkable, and I, therefore, cannot too strongly recommend 
this plant for any purpose desired. 
Different from anything in cultivation, and strongly reminds one of the classic Acan¬ 
thus of the Greeks. These beautiful fronds in the hands of a floral artist will fill a 
long-felt want. 
Delivery, August and September, 1913. 
Price 
Good plant, 4-inch pot or pan, each . $1.50 
Strong plant, 5-inch pot or pan, each . 2.50 
Strong plant, 6-inch pot or pan, each . 3.50 
Extra strong plant, 8-inch pot or pan, each . 5.00 
Extra large specimen, each . $10.00 to 50.00 
Also plants on blocks or baskets or on tree fern stems, prices and sizes on application. 
Small plants in 3-inch pots at $1.00 each. All sold. 
(FROM “GARDENING ILLUSTRATED,” LONDON, JULY 27, 1912) 
A Fine Greenhouse Fern (Polypodium Mandaianum) 
“This fern, which was given a first-class certificate at Holland Park Show, comes to us 
from America. Specimens of it were shown by Mr. W. A. Manda, South Orange, N. J., 
at the International at Chelsea, but I believe it was not placed before the committee on 
that occasion. It, however, at that time attracted a good deal of attention as a very 
beautiful fern, which, from its bold habit, high ornamental qualities, and the lasting 
nature of its stout, leathery fronds, was likely to prove of considerable value for decora¬ 
tion. A garden form, Polypodium Mandaianum, suggests to a certain extent both P. 
aureum and the nearly allied P. glaucum, though it is widely removed from either, and 
of much more vigorous growth. The fronds, which are of a pleasing shade of light green 
when young, become of a marked glaucous tint as they mature. They are in vigorous 
examples as much as six feet in length and of corresponding width. The pinnae are cut 
and slashed in a very marked manner, the divisions being in some cases extended into 
tail-like appendages. They are also more or less undulated. .The creeping rhizomes, as in 
P. aureum, also form a striking feature, being densely clothed with light-colored hairs. 
It has up to the present proved to be quite barren, but it is readily increased by division. 
The vigorous nature of this fern is well shown by the fact that it will grow with equal 
freedom either in pots or on pieces of dead tree-fern stem. This fern will succeed per¬ 
fectly in the temperature of a greenhouse. The same exhibitor also showed several forms 
of Nephrolepis exaltata that have originated in the United States, and some of which ha\re 
become exceedingly popular here. Those of a marked plumose character, such as are so 
much grown in this country, were not so freely represented as others in which the fronds 
are less divided. Many of these American varieties are of compact habit, and this, with 
their profusion of fronds combined with their firm texture, should be in their favor.” 
