172 



will transform itself into the most beautiful little ferns, 

 that may be separated, potted, or transferred to other 

 cases. 



Now to fill the case. First make, if the pan be three 

 inches deep, about one inch in depth of drainage, peb- 

 bles, charcoal, broken bricks, or, better still, broken 

 flower pots ; over this a thin layer of moss or coarse 

 fibrous stufi" of some sort to prevent the earth washing 

 into the drainage and choking it. Some cases have holes 

 in the bottom and glass receptacles for superfluous water ; 

 but if care be used in watering, this will be entirely un- 

 necessary. For soil suitable to grow most plants likely 

 to be in the fernery, a mixture of one part sand, one part 

 peat, two parts light pasture loam (leaf mould may be 

 used for peat), will do well. The earth should be heaped 

 up a little in the centre, or if the case is large two or 

 three little elevations may be made ; upon these place the 

 larger ferns or plants, w^ith the others distributed around 

 them. A log of wood covered with moss and small ferns 

 is a very pretty centre piece, and to cover the ground the 

 little running Selagiuella, common in all greenhouses, 

 answers better than almost anything else, except our own 

 native mosses, which must be treated with care, or else 

 they mould or dry up. 



Ferneries may be divided, if you like, into two classes, 

 dormant and active. By dormant I mean such as con- 

 tain plants which lie at rest during the winter mouths, 

 chiefly our natives and others like them in habit that have 

 been introduced. These it is well to arrange separately, 

 as they require less heat than the species growing all the 

 year round, chiefly from the tropics, which form the active 

 fernery. The dormant fernery can be made very inter- 

 esting, the plants in it keeping about the same all the 

 winter, but growing towards spring ; and as many like 



