IRISH GARDENING. 



Asplenium marinum. 



In Mr. E. Lloyd Praeger's interesting article 

 on Native Ferns in the November number of 

 Ikisii Gardening, he mentions the dittieultv of 

 growing the Sea Spleenwort, and asks for en- 

 lightenment as to its requirements. 



I had often endeavoured to grow it with re- 

 sidts similar to those he has experienced, in 

 1914 I was in South Donegal and found it grow- 

 ing there in luxuriance such as I had not only 

 never before seen, but would have thought im- 

 possible. The fronds wi^re not only very 

 numerous, but varied fiom nine to eighteen 

 inches in length. 



The conditions noted were as follows: — A 



There was very little drip of water from the 

 roof of the cave; in fact, none could be seen, 

 but it was rather a dry season. The chiei 

 water, therefore, that the Spleenwort received 

 was derived from sea spray. The other ferns 

 were so far in, and high up, that we could not 

 reach them. They were chiefly T^ady Ferns 

 and Royal Ferns (Osmunda). They probaoly 

 got their water supply chiefly from that per- 

 colating through the rock. 



Briefly then the conditions were : — Plenty of 

 light, no sun, lime free, chiefly vegetable sod ; 

 plenty of air, no stagnant moisture, abundance 

 of salt water, which also contains plenty of 

 lime; very free drainage 



I took four cro\\'ns of the Spleenwort and sent 

 them off by first post home, to be potted in 



Trillium grjvndiflorum. 

 The North American Wood liily. 



large, wide-mouthed cave, open only to the 

 Atlantic, into which we rowed a boat, and lan 

 her up on a beach twenty or thirty yards from 

 the mouth, which was so wide and so high that 

 there was abundance of light in the cave, but 

 though it faced S.W. no direct sunshine would 

 enter. Cliffs extended for miles on each side of 

 the entrance, thus no soil from the neighboiu-ing 

 land was likely to find its way in. There were 

 no limestone rocks in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood. The only material, therefore, for the 

 ferns to grow in was that derived from the 

 decay of their own foliage and that of numerous 

 other ferns gi'owing with them, together \Aith, 

 perhaps, an odd piece of seaweed that might be 

 thrown amongst them by waves beating in 

 during storms; also, perhaps, a little soil from 

 the disintegration of the slaty rock. 



nearly pure peat and leaf -mould, with a very 

 little loam and sand and very free drainage. 

 That was in the late summer of 1914. They 

 are all flourishing still, and send out fronds 12 

 inches long. Several friends familiar with 

 ferns said they never before saw such Aspleniurrt 

 marinum. During spring, summer and 

 autumn I grow them in the Fern (green) house 

 in full light but where the direct sun never 

 touches them, and never wet the foliage. 

 During late autumn and winter I bring them 

 in to a glass-roofed chamber or passage at the 

 back of the dwelling-house, which gets full 

 light, no sun, no artificial heat, but is dry and 

 airy. Several times a year about a teaspoonful 

 of common salt is sprinkled on the soil of each 

 pot. They have not been potted since 1914, 

 but require it now, as the roots are crowding 



