170 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



they are quite neatly finished. The meaaiirements are (inside) thirteen 

 inches across and eight inches deep. They are pierced all over with 

 small holes at bottom, ^vith a few large holes at the sides close to the 

 bottom. They are the very best pots for specimens not requiring a 

 great depth of soil, that I have hitherto seen. 



In producing specimens, the proces's adopted must depend upon 

 the habit of the species. A. cuueatum makes one of the finest 

 specimen plants ever seen ; no wonder it is the general favourite for 

 exhibition. Here we have a fern which grows from a compact 

 crown, which from year to year increases in size. With such a 

 growth, the only legitimate way of making a great specimen is to 

 grow one on and on till the desired size is attained. It is no use 

 to overpot them, for they grow no faster. The only safe way is to 

 shift from size to size as the plant requires more room, always taking 

 care never to give too much pot-room, and when it is in as large a 

 pot as desired, it may remain in the same pot for many years without 

 requiring fresh soil, and without declining in beauty. 



I could point to several wondrous adiantums that have been 

 going about at shows for the past seven years, winning everywhere, 

 and that have had no kind of shift or change of soil in all that time. 

 But if the growth of a specimen becomes poor, it must be turned 

 out in the spring just before it starts into new growth, and the 

 roots must be cut back, and much of the old soil must be shaken 

 out, and it may then be repotted in the same pot with fresh 

 compost, and will go on again very well for two or three years 

 longer. 



In making specimens of such as A. formosum, which does not 

 form a crown, but runs about hither and thither, it is quite legiti- 

 mate to pot any number of pieces in a large pan, and make a spe- 

 cimen at once. A. loedatum may be treated in this way, and in fact 

 the quickest method of making a large specimen would be to divide 

 a plant into as many pieces as possible, and pot them in small pots, 

 and put them in a warm moist house, and grow them thus one 

 season. The next season a sufficient number of these may be put 

 into a pan, and will thenceforth be elfective for exhibition or 

 decoration. 



As to temperature, all the adiantums love warmth. Even capillus 

 veneris, which is a true British fern, though nearly extinguished by 

 the zeal of collectors and the destructive stupidity of people who 

 are neither collectors nor cultivators, and who would tear the last 

 scrap of this or any other rare fern from the last of its localities 

 only to kill it by bad treatment, or to forget it an hour afterwards ; 

 even this hardy species will grow more freely in a cool, shady green- 

 house than in the open air, and more freely in a damp stove than in 

 a greenhouse. A dry heat or a strong light are very injurious, but 

 warmth with moisture suits them all without exception, and every 

 one may be well grown in a mean temperature 10 degrees higher 

 than the lowest mean temperature in which it will live and thrive. 

 Therefore the hardy kinds may be taken to the greenhouse, and the 

 greenhouse kinds to the stove, and the stove kinds may be put in 

 the hottest part of the stove, provided that in other respects they 



