MARCH. 



FERNS. 



49 



Some may be induced to exclaim, " What a singular subject 

 to begin a Number of the Florist with !" We grant it ; but 

 surprise will be diminished when we state that we are con- 

 tinually being asked what sort of plants will best suit this or 

 that moist, shady situation. For most such retreats we un- 

 hesitatingly recommend Ferns, which, although generally put 

 in the " back-ground" in a garden, surely deserve a prominent 

 position in our work. Most places, however small, possess a 

 cool shady " nook," where few flowering plants will greet us 

 with even a single blossom, but where Ferns would be quite 

 as much at home as House-leek on a house-top, their charm- 

 ing fronds giving life and beauty to the only part of the 

 garden which was an " eye-sore." But although Ferns will 

 grow in such places without much attention, they are not, 

 however, on that account, to be looked " down upon ;" on the 

 contrary, they deserve, and will amply repay, all the skill 

 which can be bestowed on their cultivation. 



In the first place, a Fernery must be made for them ; and 

 in the construction of this, one has an opportunity of dis- 

 playing a little taste. In whatever else the Florist may de- 

 part from nature, and for which he has been lately censured, 

 here at least he must strictly follow her. No smooth edges 

 or stiff circular outlines must be here, where all should be 

 graceful rusticity. Williams, in his delightful book on Ferns,* 

 says the Fernery " ought to be in the middle of a plantation, 

 or in some spot where there are sloping banks, and old stumps 

 of trees placed in different parts ; also some rock-work, which 

 should be made with burnt bricks, commonly called burs : these 

 are bricks run together, which may be had from the brickfields 

 in large masses in some parts of the country; but where stone 

 can be procured, it forms better rock-work than bricks, and its 

 appearance is more natural. Bricks, however, require to be 

 tastefully put together. Mr. James Pulham, of Broxbourne, 

 Herts, is the best hand at building rock-work that I have 

 seen, and he has been employed by many gentlemen in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country in executing works of that kind. 

 All the rock-work at Hoddesdon is formed with burs and com- 

 mon cement; these burs are put together with the cement, 

 and built according to the size and shape required. After 

 that is done, mix up some common cement with drift-sand ; 



* Hints on the Cultivation of British and Exo'.ic Ferns and Lycopodiums ; 

 with descriptions of one hundred mid fifty species and varict.es. By Benjamin 

 Samuel Williams. Chapman and Uall. 



NEW SERIES, VOL. III. NO. XXVII. F 



