THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



229 



logy for introducing a few practical re- 

 marks upon the mode of treating them. 



Let us commence by saying that there 

 s no difficulty about their culture, pro- 

 viding only that the atmosphere is of a 

 temperature to suit them, and sufficiently 

 moist. There is, however, one fern which 

 s an exception to this rule. Alsophila 

 capensis, the tree-fern of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, seldom, if ever, succeeds to one's 

 satisfaction — nine out of every ten plants 

 look feeble or half-starved; perhaps this 

 is, however, only some fault in the stems 

 which have been sent over. Time may 

 teach us better, but at present we would 

 say, if you intend to grow a few tree-ferns 

 don't let A. capensis be one of them. 



And now, let us suppose that some 

 obliging friend] in Australia, satisfied 

 with the success of his labours at the 

 " diggings," has found time to attend to 

 that letter you wrote him anent these 

 tree-ferns. He has, without difficulty, 

 found some specimens with stems from 

 four to five, or even six feet long (that is 

 quite large enough) ; he has cut away all 

 the fronds, and dug them up, without 

 taking the trouble of saving any of the 

 roots. In fact, they are stems, and no- 

 thing more — stems, sans fronds, sans roots, 

 sans everything. He leaves them out in 

 the air for a few days to dry, and then 

 packs them with shavings in a box; let him 

 be especially careful that this box be not 

 air-tight — that is their greatest danger. In 

 this way they generally come with pretty 

 good success, a large majority of them 

 quite safely. And -now, as we unpack 

 them, let them be placed upright in some 

 close, cool, dark corner — under the stage 

 of a greenhouse is as good a place as they 

 can have. Give them a syringing once 

 a-day for the first week, and after that two 

 or three times a-day ; never allow them 

 to get quite dry. By the end of a fort- 

 night, or even sooner, you will observe 

 the points of new roots starting out upon 

 the stem, and the closely-coiled up fronds 

 in the centre to be pushing upwards. 



They may now be safely potted, and 

 the mixture I have found suit them is very 

 rough fibrous peat, a small quantity of 



loam, some leaf-mould, and plenty of good 

 sharp sand ; and, while potting, throw in 

 a few h.mdsful of charcoal or broken 

 brick rubbish, not mixed with the soil, but 

 thrown in by itself here and there. You 

 see by these directions that I have no faith 

 in exact proportions for mixing soils, and 

 my candid opinion is that the mechanical 

 condition of the soil has more influence 

 than anything else. Let it then, above 

 all things, be open and porous. Use pots 

 as small as you can in the first place, and 

 shift them from time to time as the plants 

 may require it, using the same kind of 

 soil. If allowed to become pot-bound, 

 the fronds soon dwindle in size. Keep 

 them always moist at the root, and during 

 nine months of the year the stem should 

 be kept constantly moist. This can easily 

 be done without wetting the fronds much, 

 which is not always beneficial. Do not 

 expose your plants to draughts of dry air, 

 and shade from bright sunshine. Follow- 

 ing these simple rules, your tree-ferns will 

 be an ever-increasing source of pleasure. 



No cool conservatory, of any size, 

 should be without a plant or two of 

 Dicksonia antarctica, or the stronger grow- 

 ing D. squarrosa. Cyathea dealbata, 

 which will also succeed well in a cool 

 greenhouse, is beautifully white on the 

 underside of the fronds. Alsophila aus- 

 tralis may now be bought moderately 

 cheap in its seedling state. I had one 

 eighteen months ago with fronds only 

 three inches long. At the present time 

 the head of that same plant is seven feet 

 through ; but I have grown it in more 

 heat than it requires, and as soon as it is 

 a little larger, it will be removed to the 

 cool conservatory. 



The stove kinds require precisely the 

 same treatment, except with regard to 

 temperature. This should not be allowed 

 to fall below 50" 1 on wiuter nights, and the 

 ordinary heat of a stove will suit them 

 well. M. Linden, of Brussels, has, per- 

 haps, the largest collection of tree-ferns 

 in Europe. He informs me that he culti- 

 vates forty-seven species of them, and that 

 he is just now erecting a house especially 

 for their accommodation. 



CULINARY USES OF TOMATOES. 



Several correspondents have written to 

 ask for recipes for dressing tomatoes. 

 They have good crops, and know not 

 what to do with them. Former attempts 

 at making the far-famed tomato sauce 



having failed, these recipes have all been 

 tried by us, and we offer them in the 

 fullest confidence. 



Tomato Sauce for Cold Meat. — Boil 

 tomatoes when ripe with only enough 



