THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 85 



heat this fern loses all its beauty ; it cannot, in fact, be kept too 

 cool, provided it is safe from frost. To be exposed to a draught of 

 air even a few minutes will destroy all the beauty of a specimen ; 

 and hence it is well, when it is grown as a window plant, to keep it 

 covered with a bell-glass. The soil for it may be the same as for 

 •other ferns, but with a small quantity of powdered brick or pot- 

 sherds intermingled. 



We have adopted pot culture throughout now, both because 

 aftording room for a greater variety of plants, and for increased con- 

 venience and entertainment. The pots are plunged in cocoa-nut 

 fibre, and are always clean, and each plant can have the exact treat- 

 ment it requires. It is but proper to say, however, that pot culture 

 was forced upon us, for the cases became water-logged, aud the soil 

 sour and pasty, as I long ago foresaw it would do, in cases so con- 

 structed that removal of surplus water is impossible. The pot 

 system is a great gain to those who wish to grow as many varieties 

 as possible ; and as any fern can be lifted out for examination, there 

 is increased entertainment to make amends for the loss of the pic- 

 turesque scene that may be created when they are all planted out. 



I hope to continue these notes again, as in former times. 



S. H. 



THE ELOWEEIXa OF THE YUCCA EOR THE PUEPOSE 

 OF DISPLAY. 



BY .T. WILLIAMS, OP BATH LOCaE, OEMSKIRK. 



iJN' looking over, the other evening, the list of succulents 

 in the " Garden Oracle" for 1861', I was much struck 

 with the following : " Yucca. — Of this noble genus of 

 lilyworts, A. filamentosa is certainly the hardiest and 

 the handsomest. They are all handsome, and the first 

 to be procured are filaraentosa, gloriosa," etc. I have much pleasure 

 in endorsing every word of the paragraph from which the above 

 quotations are taken, and having had the boldness of lately defend- 

 ing this noble plant from its being stigmatized as " the worst yucca," 

 the corroboration has induced me to say a few words on its manage- 

 ment. " Adam's Needle and Thread," as the plant is popularly 

 called, is, when well managed, handsome at all seasons, and glorious 

 in bloom. A good plant in bloom may be seen a quarter of a mile 

 off; and in the dead of winter, a good clump of this fine plant, with 

 its broad, drooping, pine-apple-looking foliage, copiously fringed 

 with white filaments, has a decidedly tropical appearance. But the 

 plant is rarely seen well managed ; and the reason is this — the 

 plant, after flowering, dies down, and perpetuation is dependent on 

 a colony of suckers which spring up around the old plant, each 

 striving for the mastery, and, when after a year or two, or more, 

 some favoured sucker gains the ascendancy, perhaps the plant 

 flowers again. But even in this state the plant is always interesting. 

 But to insut^e a bloom of this noble plant for clumps on lawns and 

 other select places, the best method is to grow the plant singly ; 



