84 THE FLORIST. 



HARDY FERNS AND FERNERIES. 

 It scarcely needs remarking, but must be obvious to all engaged in 

 the pursuit of horticulture, that hardy Ferneries, or rockeries, are 

 amongst the more essential things met with in a garden, for effecting 

 a diversity of scenery, where such can compatibly be introduced. There 

 are usually plenty of nooks and corners to be met with, where a rockery 

 would not only be useful in filling up, but would materially improve, by 

 destroying the prevailing monotony, and impart a pleasing appearance 

 to what would otherwise be uninteresting, and regarded as dull and 

 unattractive. 



An artificial rockery, when constructed tastefully, is as attractive an 

 object as anything pertaining to a garden, especially when formed, as 

 far as practicable, imitative of nature on a small scale ; concentrating, 

 as it were, into one focus, mountain and valley, hill and dale, precipice, 

 cascade, &c., which objects should be kept in view by those constructing 

 such a device, and made the predominating character throughout the 

 whole. A rockery may be either on a large or small scale, according 

 to means and materials, but whether large or small, the one great 

 object aimed at should be the same, " imitate nature " as far as can be 

 carried out, which plan is decidedly the most preferable, producing as it 

 does a broken surface abounding with irregularities. It will like- 

 wise be found more suitable for the growth of the plants wherewith 

 it is to be furnished, as amongst the declivities so formed, many of the 

 more tender kinds can be kept with greater facility, and better pre- 

 served than when exposed on a bleak surface. There are abundance 

 of plants disseminated throughout gardens that are much better adapted 

 for cultivating on rockeries than in any other locality, such as many 

 of the creeping or trailing herbaceous kinds, and stragghng or low- 

 growing shrubs, which to a certain extent may be considered as the 

 natural occupants of such situations, and which would be managed 

 much better on rockwork than if intermixed among a general collection 

 indiscriminately, on clumps, beds, or borders. The purport of the 

 present paper being chiefly intended as suggesting, or pointing out the 

 utility of a rockwork, or a hardy Fernery in a garden, where such can 

 compatibly be introduced, and to furnish a list of the hardy Ferns 

 which can be cultivated thereon, with their native habitat, &c. ; pre- 

 suming that such may prove interesting, and useful to those who take 

 a delight in cultivating the hardy species only of this beautiful family 

 of the vegetable kingdom. 



It must be borne in mind that several of the smaller-growing 

 species enumerated in the annexed list, although indigenous to 

 Britain, only succeed well (as hardy kinds) in the more temperate parts 

 of it, or in the more favourable or sheltered localities, where they 

 encounter but a moderate degree of frost, and are not exposed to 

 a cold bleak wind ; such species are easily kept in a cold frame, or if 

 planted out they must be covered with some loose protecting material 

 during the rigour of winter ; those marked E are evergreen, and 

 retain their fronds in greater or less perfection throughout the year, 

 those marked D are deciduous, dying down at the approach of frost 

 in autumn. 



