May 2, 1867. ] 



JODBNAL OP HOBTICUIiTDBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



305 



CULTURE OF FILMY FERNS. 



ns 

 gV(3wn at the nursery of 

 Messrs. Backhouse & Son 

 more successfully than else- 

 where, and from my own 

 want of success with them, 

 except when covered with bell-glasses, I was led to take 

 an interest in them, and to try to find out wherein the 

 secret of their culture rested, and not without success. 



Growing Fihuy Ferns under bell-glasses, or glass shades, 

 is, no doubt, the only eligible mode of culture where the 

 atmosphere is only moist enough for greenhouse or stove 

 plants, and where they are kept in pots or pans along with 

 other Ferns : but it interferes so much with their being 

 seen to the best advantage, that it is only tolerable where 

 the means do not permit of their being otherwise cultivated. 

 I am persuaded that with but a slight expenditure we 

 might have these plants in beauty at any time. Those 

 who have ferneries in which the Ferns are planted out on 

 rockwork will not experience any difficulty in the culture 

 of Filmy Ferns if they provide for them a cave or well, 

 with water dripping from the roof or top, by which the 

 atmosphere around, and the stones, on which the rhizomes 

 run, will be kept constantly moist. So numerous, however, 

 are the species now that a house may be specially de- 

 voted to their cultivation, and that I shall first proceed to 

 notice. 



The tropical species thrive well, write Messrs. Back- 

 house, ■' in a low span-roofed house, heated by hot water 

 cii'culating in open brick tanks, and slightly shaded ;" 

 wliilst the New Zealand, Chilian, and Tasmanian species 

 '■ succeed well in our ordinary (cool) fernery without any 

 glass shades : the glass roof being externally covered with 

 a thin coating of white paint, and the atmosphere kept 

 constantly liimiid." 



To make a digression, which I hope the reader will par- 

 don, I think that for Ferns to be seen to the best advan- 

 tage they should be associated with idndred subjects. For 

 instance, where tliere is a rockery of any considerable pro- 

 portions it should be occupied with Alpines, and near it 

 might be the hardy fernery, having the northern aspect of 

 the rockery. I would here inti'oduce ferneries of glass for 

 the more rare and less hardy kinds of Ferns, having first 

 a cool house for the best of the hardy British and exotic 

 species and varieties : then a house for Ferns from tempe- 

 rate climates, and large and lofty enough for tree Ferns, 

 these being disposed in irregular beds on the gromid, and 

 not on raised rockwork : and a third house for species 

 from hot countries. In each of these houses I would have 

 a recess of sufficient size to allow of a person standing 

 in it and \-iewing the plants, and ha\ing an entrance as 



No. 318 —Vol. XII., New Sebies. 



large as a fair-sized door. I would not use a brick in the 

 construction of the houses, but would build the walls of 

 limestone rock and large pieces of sandstone, and I would 

 use no glass except for the roofs, which should extend over 

 every part, even to the recesses for the Filmy Ferns. jVny 

 difficulty in maldng the opening in the walls could be sur- 

 mounted by filling them up with small pieces of rock and 

 mortar. I would have nothing objectionable to the eye- 

 but the necessary doors, and places for heating might by 

 a little care in the disposition of the rockw-ork be readily 

 arranged. The al)ove would be a more natural and agree- 

 able disposition of ferneries in gardens than that generally 

 adopted, and it \\ould not be more costly, wlulst the wants 

 of those kinds thrinng outside, as well as Alpine plants, 

 which of late years have been much neglected, would be 

 provided for. 



Filmy Ferns are the least exacting of all plants. They 

 require an atmosphere which is constantlj' humid, an open 

 porous soil, and a modei'ate amount of air. The above 

 conditions cannot be secured in ordinary feiTiexies, and I 

 therefore advocate devoting specially to Filmy Ferns either 

 part of the house or a small house. The latter I would 

 make in the gi'ound, or against the side of a bank, covering 

 it with rough plate glass. The interior fittings should be- 

 formed of rockwork. employing gritty sandstone, and if 

 moss-covered all the better. The floor should be formed 

 of rough stones, and the heating apparatus should be hot- 

 water pipes passing through open tanks made of bricks 

 and cement. The tanks maybe easily hidden by rockwork. 

 The best stock bricks, or, still better, blue fire-bricks, 

 should be used. Provision must be made in the centre 

 of the glass roof for admitting au-, which should not be 

 given at the sides nor immediately over the plants, and 

 never in excessive quantit3-. If a division is made with 

 rockwork, or the fernery is narrowed in the middle, a door- 

 way only being left, one end may be used for the tropical 

 species and the other for those from temperate regions, 

 requiring artificial heat only in winter to protect them 

 from frost, for whicli purpose two hi.it- water pipes all roimd 

 will be ample ; these may be hidden by rockwork, and 

 should never be made very hot. Unless the house is more 

 than 13 feet wide, a brick tank, 1 foot wide and 1-^ foot 

 deep, with two four-inch hot-water pipes in it, all round 

 the house, will be ample for the tropical species ; for the 

 house being against a hill, and in a manner in the groimd, 

 the temperature and huniitUty will be more equable than 

 where the house is above ground. If there is a shallow 

 stone reservoir in each compartment, by keeping it full of 

 water the requisite degree of humidity may be more easily 

 maintained than where such does not exist. In the arrange- 

 ment of the rockwork it should be remembered that all the 

 species are not the same in their requirements ; some parts 

 of it should be made prominent, in others there should be 

 recesses or nooks, and some must be close to the glass, and 

 near the points of au--.giving. If this be done with taste 

 the house will be everything that could be desii-ed, for 

 there 'i\'ill be places more shad}' than others, some airy, 

 and some where the atmosphere can be kept more close 

 and wet than in others. 



No. 970.— Vol. XSSVII., Old Seejes. 



