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The first of the qualities which make our ferns so valu- 

 able for decoration will now be manifest, in that they 

 supply suitable means for treating those dark and damp 

 places where little else can live. It remains to show that 

 the pronounced beauty of form which the ferns possess, 

 entitles them to the decorator's fullest consideration. In 

 what has been written thus far we have been occupied, 

 almost exclusively, with normal forms. Such massing as 

 Nature gives is accomplished with ordinary types. But it 

 is the privilege of the cultivator to be able to get together 

 in numbers the special treasures which in the wild state 

 occurs only at distant intervals. Very beautiful and highly 

 decorative are the simplest of our British ferns, as those 

 will allow who have seen them in havens such as we have 

 been describing. They are, however, to be compared with 

 the glory of their fully-developed varieties only as the wild 

 rose to the majesty of its stately cousin when transformed 

 into the queen of flowers. It is no hght undertaking to 

 attempt advice with reference to the choice of " varieties." 

 Their multitude is bewildering. I had been some years at 

 work upon the ferns, when the catalogue of a well-known 

 specialist came my way. Most of the types I had studied 

 where they grew, and I had acquired some of the leading 

 varieties. But when I turned over the pages of the 

 catalogue and found, not as I expected, tens, but hundreds, 

 I realised myself the veriest tyro. Of Hartstongues there 

 were seventy-five, of Shield Ferns no fewer than 185, and, 

 what is more, as I have learned since, there are numbers 

 which these lists did not include. Where the field is so 

 vast all that can be attempted is an outline notice of a few 

 that seem to stand out prominently for decorative beauty 

 and for general hardiness. 



H. KiNGSMiLL Moore. 



{To he contimicd .) 



