British Ferns. It is a diminutive species, approaching nearest
to the A . ruta-muraria, and even considered by some authors
as merely a variety of this common British Fern. There are
characters, however, Avhich appear to render it a distinct species.
As a cultivated plant, it does not seem by any means
difficult to groAv; whereas A . ruta-muraria, common as it is,
requires more than ordinary skill to enable the cultivator to
produce a good specimen. Probably this, in a great measure,
may bo attributed to the unnatural manner in Avhich it is
grown under pot culture ; the fronds are made to stand upright,
whilst in its wild state they are horizontal. This difficulty
might easily be overcome by adopting Avooden baskets, (somewhat
similar to those in general use for orchidaceous plants,)
in lieu of the ordinary floAver-pot. In these baskets, those
species requiring abundance of stone and old mortar, might be
so arranged with these materials, with the addition of a small
amount of soil and washed sand, that nature could be very
closely imitated; the roots being placed, as it were, in the
crevices of a rock, and AAÙth the fronds protruding through
the sides of the wooden basket. In order that these baskets
can be understood, a sketch of one is added as a vignette
to this species.
It is a hardy species.
T h e f r o n d s a r e p in n a t e , th e loAver p in n a b e i n g t e r n a t e ;
p in n æ a l t e r n a t e a n d d i s t a n t , b if id o r t r i f id a t th e a p e x , th e
p in n æ b e i n g d e s t i tu t e o f a m i d - v e in , g l a b r o u s , l i n e a r , a n d v e r y
n a rroA v ; t e rm in a l , b e i n g a t t a c h e d to a tu f t e d rh iz om a .
T h e length of th e frond is from tAvo to three inches: fronds
have been gathered on the continent even double this size.
The colour of the stipes is d a rk at the base and green above;
the pinnæ are pale green.
The edge of the indusium is smooth and even.
This species is very subject to variation, scarcely two fronds
being alike. It is nowhere common. In Fifeshire it has been
found about three miles from Dumfermline Bocks, on the Kiver
TAveed, near Kelso, Eoxburghshire; also in Perthshire, on
the Stenton Bocks, near Dunkeld; on the Kyloe Crags,
Northumberland; in Borrowdale, Cumberland; and in Caernarvonshire,
North IVales. Mr. Sowerby mentions in his work on
the “ Ferns of Great Britain,” that Mr. W. HaAvker had found
tAvo plants m 1854, on a precipice near ScaAv-fell, and that it
had been collected near Llanrwst, and in the Pass of Llanberis;
yet it seems doubtful whether it exists in above one or two
of these localities at the present time. On the continent it is
sparingly seen groAving in the crevices of rocks and walls in
Hungary, Siveden, Germany, France, and Italy. Mr. T. B.
Charlton found this species on a loose stone wall at the village
of Airolo, near the foot of St. Gothard, Pass of the Alps on the
Italian side, groAving on a south or south-west aspect: it Avas
not in great abundance. In the same locality A . septentrionale
Avas very abundant.
A . Germanicum should be planted among fragments of freestone,
peat, and decayed vegetable mould in small quantities:
good drainage and only moderate watering are essential.
A . Germanicum being so scarce in the collections of Fern
cultivators in Great Britain, feAV groAvers would like to risk
their solitary specimens of this treasure in the open air, to
the influence of a winter’s frost. Mr. Charlton, hoAvever, having
brought half-a-dozen or more examples from the Alps, and
without being perhaps aAvare that he had secured a more than
ordinarily rare Fern, hazarded three or four plants in his
Fernery, at Chilwell Hall. Being anxious to know whether
they survived the great cold of the severe winter of 1855,
inquiry Avas made, and Mr. Charlton informed me that all his
plants were alive; and, although those in a cold frame were
more thriving than those planted in the open air, still the
latter grew tolerably well. So severe a test as that of the
past Avinter, completely establishes the fact that A . Germanicum
will groAV in the open air under cultivation.
The Fern growers of our British species will doubtless
Avelcome this information; for if a plant will survive a decree
of frost sufficiently intense to destroy many usually hardy trees,
such as the Holly, Laurel, Arbutus, etc., that plant may with
tiuth be said to be quite hardy; and as winters as severe as
the one Avhich we experienced in February and March, 1855,
are of very unfrequcnt occurrence in this island, there can be
hut httle danger in hazarding the present species in our open-
air Ferneries.
^ I am indebted to T. B. Charlton, Fsq., Chihvcll Hall, Nottinghamshire;
and to Messrs. A. Henderson, of the Pine-apple
t |