58 THE FLORIST. 



fronds from six to nine inches high. I am not aware that there is 

 any thing particularly attractive about its roots to induce grubs to 

 attack them ; but I have had my entire stock destroyed more than 

 once by their attacks, and that too before I was aware of their pre- 

 sence, as the fronds continued green and upright for some time after 

 the roots were entirely gone; on removing the soil, however, I soon 

 discovered the cause. This is doubtless chiefly the reason of its being 

 said to be difficult to cultivate. When planted out, it is not so sub- 

 ject to their attacks. Young plants are at all times preferable to 

 old ones ; a fact which I have often proved. The fronds are pin- 

 nated, the pinnse roundish, and the whole plant exhibits a pleasing 

 green. 



A. TRicHOMANEs. Much like the preceding, but generally stouter, 

 and differing in the shape of the pinnae, which are dark green, with 

 the rachis black. It appears to submit to cultivation much better 

 than A. viride, and readily produces an abundance of seedlings, which 

 appear, at least so far as I have seen, to come exactly like the original. 

 Its habitats are rocks and old walls, both in the shade and out of it. 



A. FONTANUM. In this elegant little Fern we have a rather doubt- 

 ful native, indeed I am inclined to beheve that few, if any, botanists 

 of the present day have been fortunate enough to meet with it in a 

 truly wild state. I have, it is true, both heard and read of its being 

 detected in certain localities, but no further notice appears to have 

 been taken of such discoveries. In short, I never considered it a 

 really British plant, notwithstanding that I have known it for nearly 

 forty years, and I believe I have successfully cultivated it for nearly 

 as many. It readily adheres to a soil of peat, loam, and silver-sand, 

 and consequently is not impatient under cultivation. 



Foot's Cray, Kent, Robkrt Sim. 



WINTERING THE CARNATION. 



No one, I should imagine, who has at all studied the nature of the 

 plant will doubt its perfect hardiness. Carnation-frames do not 

 require guarding so much from frost as from excessive wet. My 

 own frames are constantly thrown open when the atmosphere is clear 

 and dry, though the frost may be severe. I prefer narrow frames of 

 considerable inclination, hinged to a hanging stile at the back, to 

 the ordinary cucumber-frame ; for when the lights are propped in 

 front two or three inches, there is still sufficient slope to throw oflf 

 the rain. Such frames, after being placed in an aspect as near north 

 as possible, are filled as close to the top as will allow the lights to 

 be closed if necessary without crushing the plants, with finely sifted 

 cinders, which are watered with a rosed watering-pot, and rendered 

 somewhat firm by gently beating with the back of a spade. They 

 are then holed with a hollow tapering tube of tin or copper, which 

 is, in fact, the old-fashioned Tulip-planter, and the pots are plunged 

 to within about half an inch of their rims. 



