NoTember £6, 1868. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOimCULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



.3!© 



SOME NOTES ON FERNS, 

 EXOTIC. 



HARDY AND 



ERNS are ever worthy of admiration, but if I 

 admire them more at one season than another, 

 now is the time, 



" When bleak November's winds are blawing, 

 Baith snell and keen." 



Wlien summer flowers lose tlieir beauty and 

 fade away, l''erns are lovely and graceful as 

 ever ; they are plants for everybody, and are 

 to be found in the garden of the cottager, in 

 the small greenhouse of the man of limited means, and in 

 the garden of the nobleman, who can ali'ord to build large 

 conservatories where tree Ferns may luxuriate in abun- 

 dant space. 



First, I will jot down some notes about hardy Ferns, 

 which are very easily managed, and the nurserymen's lists 

 of which are numerous, especially in varieties of the normal 

 forms of British species. These can be purchased at a 

 cheap rate from the dealers in them, but are not so in- 

 teresting to the enthu.siastic cultivator as plants which 

 have been collected during a holiday tour, and which have 

 been obtained at the expense of many a fatiguing journey 

 over hill and dale, and sometimes at much personal risk. 



Some of the rarest of our native species are difficult to 

 manage under cultivation, and rec|uire peculiar treatment 

 to have them in a tloiu'ishing condition. The best place 

 out of doors for them is a position partially shaded, but 

 not too much confined, as they cau bear a little exposure. 



I will notice a few of the most interesting native sorts 

 wliich I have successfully cultivated, and there is none 

 more worthy of notice than the true Maiden-hair, Adiantum 

 capillus-Veneris. It is one of the rarest of our native 

 Ferns, and is found in tolerable abundance at Tiutagel, in 

 Cornwall. It grows best in a moist warm temperature ; 

 in fact, it pines away and dies in the open air, and just 

 manages to live in a greenhouse. I grow it in the plant 

 stove in a compost of turfy peat, a small portion of sandy 

 loam, and a few rough pieces of charcoal, placing plenty of 

 drainage at the bottom of the flower pot. 



Asplenium marinum requires the same treatment. I 

 had a large plant of it which threw up fronds 1« inches 

 long in the stove ; it also succeeds well in a vinery where 

 it is partially shaded by the Vines during the season of its 

 growth ; the moist atmosphere which the Vines require 

 during the growing season just suits it. It does not suc- 

 ceed nearly so well in a cool greenhouse. I was planting 

 a specimen of it in a rockworU I formed out of doors in 

 the spring of the present year, when a lady, visiting here, 

 told me it was useless planting it, as she had proved that 

 it would not so live in the neighbourhood of London 

 My plant looks healthy as yet; it has just been covered 

 with a bell-glass, which will be allowed to remain on all 

 the winter, and I have the hope that under careful mannge- 

 ment it will succeed. It grows and thrives in an exposed 

 position on the north shore of tlie Firth of Forth, or did 

 grow eight years ago, but the spot was often visited by 

 collectors, and the plants were fast disappearing. 



No. 400.— Vol. XV., New Series. 



Ceterach officinarum is another interesting little FerQ 

 wliich I obtained from an old wall, where it grows natn- 

 rally, in a cottage garden about two miles from Godalming, 

 in Surrey. It succeeds well in a greenhouse temperature, 

 or out of doors. I have raised numbers of plants from 

 spores of this species. To cultivate it I half fill a fi-inch 

 pot with crocks and broken bricks, placing some of the 

 hbrous part of turfy loam over them to prevent the com- 

 post from mixing with them. The material in which they 

 are potted consists of good turfy yellow loam one part, 

 mortar rubbish one part, and one part bricks broken into 

 small pieces, with a little silver sand. I raise the compost 

 in the form of a mound in the centre of the pot. A G-rncb 

 pot will hold six plants, one on the top of the mound in 

 tlie centre, and the others in a circle round it. ThisFem 

 must be kept very dry in winter, and only just moist in the 

 growing season. 



To raise young plants from spores, till a pot with the 

 same material whicli I have recommended for growing the 

 plants in, up to within 1 inch of the rim, then place some 

 small pieces of broken bricks on the surface, and lay 

 over them the fronds with ripe spores, plneing a sqnare of 

 glass over all. I prepared a pot in this way. and the yoirog 

 plants came up in dozens all over the surface of the bricks ; 

 a green muss-like appearance first showed itself, and from 

 this the fronds ultimately protruded. The plant I have 

 out of doors is healthy, and, under a bell-glass, will, I hope, 

 survive the winter at this place, 



Allosorus crispus is another pretty little Fern, which I 

 brought from its native mountain home on the Eldon hiUs, 

 near^Melrose, in Scotland, where it grows abundantly. It 

 here flourishes out of doors, and does not require pot- 

 culture. It has been grown here for five vearg. 



Polypodium dryopteris and P. pliewopteris, natives of 

 the Scotch mountains, succeed well here. I brought tie 

 plants from the highest part of the Cheviot range, where 

 they grow abundantlv. Allosorus cris|>us is also found 

 there in dense tuffs, 2 feet in diametHr, clinging to the face 

 of the rocks, and living on the smallest amount of natB- 

 ment 



Polypodium vulgare camhricum, is an easily • ciiltivatea 

 Fern which ought to be in every collection ; it retains its 

 very pleasing shade of green throu'.'liout the winter ; it is 

 well adapted for pot-culture, and it is easily propagaJ^ii 

 by division. 



Of Scolopendrium vulgare, the numerous varieties j^re 

 very interesting, and easily cultivated. The variety cris- 

 pura is very pretty, and docs well in the rockwork out of 

 doors ; it is also flue for pot-culture, and easily increastcE 

 by division. 



Athyriiim Filix-fomina, the Lady Fern— there are nu- 

 merous forms of this graceful Fern nnw, most of theaa- 

 worthy of cultivafion. I have grown the variety erisfatnHs 

 for a "number of years, and I admire it much I raise*! a. 

 large number from spores, and the young plants nearTj sH 

 came the same as the parent. Tliis Fnrn thrives well in. 

 a compost containing a large portion of peat. 



Cyslopteris fragilis is another easily-cultivated sppciek 

 The" fronds of this Fern do not last long, hnt arp renewwS 



No. 1052.— Vol. XL., OIK Se3iZ2». 



