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left to themselves will be fertile in suggestions for the 

 treatment of such sites. Where there are walls, little 

 difficulty will be experienced in inducing the Polypody 

 to adorn the tops, leaf-mould worked into hollows and 

 crevices is all they will need. To get the sites covered 

 with Hartstongues, after the fashion of the wall described 

 in the Guardian of January loth, will not be so easy; the 

 requisite supplies of moisture will be absent. But, with 

 the help of stones and cement simple wall-pockets can be 

 readily made, in which the ferns will soon be quite at 

 home. If there are no walls, as a supplement to the walls, 

 tree stumps and roots afford, perhaps, the best of all 

 positions for the Polypody. It was with some hesitation 

 that I ventured to imitate Nature, and grow my best 

 varieties in this way. The results have so far surpassed 

 those obtained upon the level that I can confidently 

 recommend the method. Its feasibility arises from the 

 indifference of the Polypody to temporary drought. In the 

 neighbourhood of Dublin, the summer of 1905 was one of 

 the driest for years. Many of my Polypodies received no 

 artificial watering. They are, nevertheless, in full health 

 and vigour. The rest of the work will be best completed 

 by throwing the soil into hills and hollows, to which 

 stones may or may not be added, according as taste or 

 convenience direct. In this way not only will drainage be 

 simplified, but the variety of contour inseparable from 

 Nature's ferneries will be obtained. By simple devices 

 such as these we shall be able to associate all the more 

 hardy ferns, and to give them the situations they like best. 

 Upon the lowest levels will be the Lady Fern and the 

 Broad Buckler, higher up the Shield Fern and Male Fern 

 will make their home. Over them the Polypodies will 

 wreath the tree-stumps with coronals and garlands of 

 richest green. Behind, where there are walls, the distinct 

 form of the Hartstongue will give a fitting background. 

 The Polypodies, again, a forest of them if we are happy in 

 our planting, will add the topmost finish to the whole. 



