Daily Honolulu press. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1886, 1886-02-24
FERNS AND FERN
ERIES.

WOliu iilildDitCu Wy ClNillLSu lHCIl anu
women that possess so many natural ad-
vantages for the growth and cultivation
of rare and beautiful plants and flowers
in the open air or, if sheltered under
glass, without the aid of artificial heat,
as the Hawaiian Islands And, it may
truthfully be said that in but few locali-
ties can be found better appreciation
OF, and love for pretty gardens than is
found here.
In where within the
memory of those yet living there was
scarcely tree or shrub to be seen
the senses are delighted by the varied
colors and odors of a thousand flow
ers and with the pleasing shapes of
a great variety of ornamental foliage
plants. Chief amongst the latter are
ferns. Their lovely fronds are seen
dropping from hanging baskets and
window-seat boxes /: screening the lat
tices of verandas; in tall clumps
filling shady corners of gardens and
covering masses of rock-work. We find
them Qike the Asplenium nidns, the
"bird nest fern) resting in crotches of
massive trees and sending out their
broad smooth fronds on every side or
clustered in the crevices of rockeries,
from which, Qike the stately Mebhr0-
kspis e1altata) their slender, graceful
plumes spring in profuson. In one
garden we will find the larger varieties
growing in gaily painted tubs or huge
vases, and in another mounds of earth
and rock covered with the bright green
fronds of our larger AspieninmS and
Pslybodiums.
Within dozen ferneries some of
which are quite elaborate affairs are
to be found many imported ferns
especially Of the family of the 4dian-
tum Ito which the "maiden's hair" fern
belongs). This beautiful class of ferns
has been cultivated for SO long time,
and adapts itself so easily to the con-
finement of house culture, that it is
justly great favorite with fern growers
Many new varieties and "sports" have
been produced, and all are elegant in
cutting and habit. Besides these there
are many others chiefly of the P2e,4s
family which have been imported and
do we'll in and out of doors here, and
the ferneries in and about Honolulu
are full of beautiful and interesting
forms, not only of ferns but orchids,
coleas, and other fine plants,
NATURES FERNERIEs.
But to see what can be done in this
climate in the way of growing ferns
one needs to visit some of Natures
ferneries in the wooded valleys and
mountains of this group 1t matters
not if one has no acquaintance with
the different families. What is seen is
novelty and variety Of form growing in
magnificent profuslon and luxury.
Each new plant, as it is met with, is a
source of fresh admiration. Nor are
the grace and variety of forms and
cool greenness of ferns their only beau
ties : for, if full grown frond is ex-
amined closely the wonderful arrange
ment Of seeds Tor sboyss), with which
the under side of all Hawaiian varieties
is clothed, excites curiosity and interest,
and not unfrequent result is that the
examiner is smitten with "fern fever"
and cannot rest until collection, more
or less complete, is made.
And it is in making one of these
collections that the beautiful ferneries
Of the Hawaiian Islands are visited.
The fern hunter is lead into the most
picturesque places on the Islands. Into
the heart of the grand forests Of Mauna
Loa and Haleakala. Into the beauti-
full valleys of romantic Kauai, and the
deep recesses of historical lao. Up
the slopes Of our volcanic peaks into
the regions of almost perpetual snow
where, in cunning little ''rockeries'
formed by rugged masses of basaltio
lava is found clustered close to each
other the slender, round lobed Asplea-
lam t,1eh0manes, that loves that bleak,
sterile region. In the bottom of the
deep gorges that seam the sides of the
mountains along the backs of the
long ridges and in the darkest, the dank
est, the most gloomy of wooded
ravines, in all these are ferneries each
filed with the varieties best adapted to
the localities together with MOSES and
lichens.
Nor are the ferneries of the Islands
confined to the moist and wooded up
lands. AT the level of the sea, but a
few PAGES back from the salt waves,
growing in the coarse sand beach is to
be found the odd-looking OtAloglossun,
nK6ieaKie with a double row of cap
sules forming slender spike detached
from the frond, an arrangement, which,
by the way, removes this plant into a
sub-order with others of the same type
which we must look for in a totally
different locality. Next beyond
this sandy fernery, only occupied
by this one plant, as we ascend from
the sea-shore, we will probably find
PteyTs aQHiliaa, which can hardly be
said to affect any one locality as it
grows over the entire habitable world,
and is found here from 500 feet above
the sea to $4,000, varying in height