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content. I am quite satisfied with the medium size so 

 long as the shape be good and the plants healthy and 

 characteristic. 



I have not by any means reached my ideal. I am still 

 a learner with three great requisites and necessaries — the 

 watering-can, the syringe and the light, and which 

 of these is the greatest necessary, I don't know ; they 

 form a triple alliance. 



TheScols., Polypods. and Athyriums, poor things! do so 

 need the bath, or rather, to be exact, the spray of insecti- 

 cide. The Polystichums, on the other hand, are very 

 clean and self-respecting. But, oh dear, how they will 

 *' rust off" when grown in pots! And yet why should 

 they ? There must be a cause, and along with it, a cure. 



This is my trouble and my failure No. i. My nearest 

 approach to success in this respect comes from plunging 

 one pot in another, going so far, even, as to insert compost 

 between the two pots. Even so, my troubles are not 

 over ; so I go on to failure No. 2 — the fronds being 

 prostrate in growth, they rot off or become discoloured by 

 contact with the damp soil, possibly, too, from inexpert 

 watering. My friend Mr. Henwood overcomes this 

 danger by resting the fronds on inverted oyster shells. 



This year I adopted another method. Before the ferns 

 showed any signs of " rust " I put them out in their pots 

 in a sheltered corner in the open air, and J did not allow 

 them to vest in pans full of water, and then, when the dog 

 days were over, I restored them to their shelves. 



That Polystichums can be well grown in pots, free from 

 blemish and large enough to satisfy anyone, I know to be 

 a fact. I have seen such with Dr. Stansfield, Mr. 

 Henwood and with our Editor. I should dearly like 

 to know the secret. If my failures lead up to a cor- 

 respondence in our June number, 1 should indeed be 

 glad, and so, I think, will many more. 



[Replies in this conneciion will be welcome. — Ed.] 



