THE FLOEAL WOELD A^D GAEDEN aUIDE, 



283 



private collections, I cannot imagine; there 

 are very few but which the least experi- 

 enced fern grower could manage with 

 effect, and their unique elegance commead 

 them to all who have an eye to the pecu- 

 liar beauties of the Cryptogamia. Oue 

 remark, by way of caution, occurs to me : 

 never raise the soil above a dead level 

 in the plautiug of a fern case. When 

 arranged, in tie flrst instance, it certainly 

 adds to the effect if the sod rises gently 

 from the sides to the ceutre in the form 

 of a hillock, but in the end it in bad for 

 the ferns. The water runs off from the 

 ceutre, finds its way to the zinc or glass 

 in whicli the soil is contained, and gets 

 througli the di-ainage without wetting the 

 soil through. Even if this does not 

 happea in summer, it is sure to do so in 

 winter, wlien for long pei'iods together it is 

 inadvisable to give water. The soil then 

 gets hard, and when spring returns refuses 

 to receive a drop ; to stir the earth as you 

 would the soil iu a flower-pot, may par- 

 tially remedy the evil, but surface stirrings 

 are not to be recommended in the case of 

 fern collections, because the surfacing of 

 mosses, marchantia, confervoids, and seed- 

 ling ferus must be destroyed thereby. 

 When well managed the soil of a War- 

 dian case is soon covei-ed with sponta- 

 neous growths of a most interesting and 

 beautilul kind, which should be encou- 

 raged by a right procedure from the first. 

 My ferneries abound with seedling plants 

 and chance growths of the most varied 

 kind, ' and many of these are as valuable 

 when they appear as the plants that have 

 been introduced in the regular method of 

 planting. 



I have tried all sorts of ways of sus- 

 pending ferns, and I find none better than 

 the simple appropriation of cocoa-nut 

 shells ; not the outside fibrous husk, but 

 the true shell, carefully broken^ with a 

 clean edge all round, and bound with a 

 strip of split cane. The holes must be 

 burnt in the shell, as they are apt to split 

 if any attempt is made to pierce them with 

 awl or gimlet, and, besides that, they 



are so hard that the best bit of steel 

 breaks like glass against them. Make 

 three holes for cbaiuage, and two very 

 small holes near the rin), exactly opposite 

 each other, and use for suspending a sil- 

 ver string of the Spanisli guitar, which 

 will never rot, and is as soft and pliable 

 as pack-thread. The two ferns here re- 

 pj;-esented are examples of my mode of 

 suspending. The A'iiantum is in a cocoa- 

 nut, bored all over with holes a cpiarter or 

 thu'd of an inch in diameter, and it has 

 pushed crowns thi'ough every one of them, 

 so as to smother the outside with foliage. 

 The Camptosorus is in a little case formed 

 of thin bark, bound with brass wire, 

 which, in another season, it will be too 

 large for, and will lave to be shifted into 

 a cocoa-shell. To water these, the best 

 way is to lift them out and lower them into 

 a deep vessel, with a stick passed through 

 the suspending cord and laid across the 

 top of the vessel, so that they can sink the 

 full length of the cord and be thoroughly 

 saturated. They can be lifted out in a 

 quarter of an hour, and allowed to drip 

 for a few minutes by again lodging the 

 stick at each end iu a suitable place. As 

 a Ust of ferus suitable for suspension may 

 prove useful just now, I submit the follow- 

 ing as those likely to prove gt-ueraily use- 

 ful :— 



Asplenium flabellifolium, ebeneum, 

 attenuatum, braehyptera, nitidum, pin- 

 natifidum, reclinatum. 



Acrophorus hispidus. 



Adiantum caudatum, setulosum. 



Campyloneurum caespitosum. 



Davallia pentaphylla, dissecta, decora 

 pinnatifida (Humata), 



Goniophlebium piloselloides, vaccinii- 

 fohum. 



Goniopteris scolopendrioides. 



Hemiontis cordifolia. 



Nothochlfena teuera, nivea. 



Niphobolus pertusus, rupestris. 



Oleaudra (Aspidium) nodosa. 



Polypodium filipes, 



Phlebodium lycopodioides, stigmatica. 



MINUTE POINTS IN STOVE AND GEEENHOTJSE CULTUEE. 



of the beautiful and natural should be so 



We "Five London Subscribers" have to 

 thank you for the attention which you gave 

 our former inquiries some months back, 

 and hope we do not intrude too much on 

 your time and patience. We think you 

 are glad to assist us town-folk v/ho have a 

 "weakness" for flowers, or a "passion," 

 as some will have it. Alas ! that the love 



rare among us. 



1. We are adding to our collections, 

 and find your " Select Greenhouse Plants" 

 useful, and hope you will continue these 

 every month, now that there will bs room 

 to spare during the winter in the Flokal 

 WoKLD pages. 



