IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XIV 

 No. 165 



Editor-J. W. Besant. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



NOVEMBER 

 1919 



Notes on Native Ferns and their Cultivation* 



Bv Pi. Lloyd Praeger, B.A., B.E. 



I HAVE read with much interest the articles by 

 H. C. D. on " Fern Growing '' which recently 

 appeared in this journal, and they have set me 

 thinking about a group of plants which are very 

 old favourites. I well remember how, at the age 

 of fourteen, spending a summer month at 



ing and long days spent Fern hunting — chiefly 

 in Ireland, with that veteran Fern lover, VV. H. 

 Phillips, of Belfast, and also for one glorious 

 fortnight in Devonshire with E. J. Lowe and 

 Col. A. M. Jones. 



The British Isles are not rich in Ferns as com- 



i'holo by] 



Viburnum tomkntosum plicatum 

 at Mount Usher. Co. Wieklow. 



ir. E. Tn-rilhU-k 



Ambleside, my mind was torn by the rival at- 

 tractions of fishing and of ferns — both of which 

 force themselves on one's attention in that de- 

 lectable region. I decided then in favour of Fern^ 

 and never have regretted my choice : so far as 

 the British species are concerned, I have been 

 ever faithful to my first love. If I now inflict 

 some rather casual notes on the readers of Irish 

 Gardening, I must plead in excuse the pleasure 

 it gives to recall early experiments in Fern grow- 



pared to many warmer and damper regions. 

 Some 44 species are foimd in our islands, of 

 which 33 are Irish. But at the same time the 

 native Fern flora is varied in composition, con- 

 taining examples of most of the sections into 

 which the Fern woi'ld has been divided by 

 botanists, and including, in the Eoyal Fern', 

 Moonwort and Adder 's-tongue representatives 

 of some of the most ancient races of Ferns now 

 left upon the globe. In studying our native 



