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than the winter to overhaul one's treasures and rearrange 

 them so that the evergreen section may have more room 

 for their display than in the growing season, when the 

 deciduous section are as a rule so assertive as to largely 

 encroach, under favourable conditions, upon their neigh- 

 bours. Still speaking personally we experience this to a 

 very large extent in connection with long established 

 Athyria, it may be of historical interest, producing huge 

 fronds four or five feet long and forming as specimens, 

 plants as much through, side by side with Shield ferns of 

 equal merit and dimensions, but of less altitude. These 

 latter, now that the deciduous fronds of their competitors 

 have died down and have been removed, can be given full 

 space for the exhibition of their long half-hidden charm. 

 Thus, though the Fernery may look barer, the labour and 

 thought involved in removal and readjustment is fully 

 repaid, and what is the main thing, while we are planning 

 this to the best advantage and doing the work, our minds 

 will now assuredly be entirely distracted from the troubles 

 and worries of the outer- world, which we are assuming it is 

 impossible for us in many cases to alleviate by labour in 

 other directions. Much, too, can be done in the way of 

 studying the literature of the cult, relabelling our plants, 

 compiling and correcting lists, and between the time of 

 writing this issue and that of the next, much, too, may be 

 done in the way of division and repotting in the first 

 months of the coming year. Meantime, too, we may 

 repeat our injunction regarding the risks of neglecting the 

 watering of the inconspicuous deciduous species, now 

 devoid of fronds and often quite invisible, but which in 

 Nature are never dry in the winter time. We have, how- 

 ever, we think, said enough to shew that there is always 

 something to be done and that by its doing we may benefit 

 ourselves and banish dull care in one of the best ways 

 possible. Finally, while praying from the bottom of our 

 hearts for a speedy reinstatement of a peace on permanent 



