258 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



[ April 3, 1866. 



aprearance. When one rongh leaf is formed, I repot them into 

 four-inch pots, using a rather rich compost ; and as they grow 

 they are tied loosely to a small stick till about 18 inches high, 

 when they are stopped. They are then ready for their fruiting- 

 pots. For this purpose I use pots of about 15 inches in 

 diameter, thoroughly drained with potsherds and broken bricks. 

 Nowl^r the soil. While the plants have been growing the 

 soil has been undergoing a little preparation. Unlike " Peteb," 

 I prefer freshcnt turf which has been a week or so in the 

 middle of a bed of strong fermenting borfe-droppings ; by this 

 means it is heated sufficiently to kill all the roots of grass, 

 &e., contained in it, and becomes highly charged with am- 

 monia. I use this in a rongh, lumpy state, warm and steam- 

 ing from the heap, without any admixture whatever ; the roots 

 immediately strike into it, and the plants grow amazingly. At 

 first I only just cover the ball, adding more soil as the roots 

 advance. When the soil in the pots becomes exhausted, I top- 

 dress with a little of the same kind of soil, and water with 

 liquid manure. 



When the plants throw out their laterals I only leave the 

 upper three or four, and as the plants grow and spread I stop 

 every shoot at the first joint, unless wanted for cuttings. About 

 the' middle of December, and sometimes earlier, 1 commence 

 taking cuttings whenever an opportunity offers, to replace any 

 plants that may seem exhausted or weakly, which they will some- 

 times be dming the dark days of winter, in spite of the utmost 

 care. This plan of replacing worn-out plants with vigorous 

 yovmg stock must be closely followed if handsome fruit be 

 desired. , 



The plants are never syringed, but a moist atmospnere is 

 insured by copious spiinidinj;s of the bed, pipes, and floor 

 twice or thrice a-day. The thermometer is never allowed to 

 exceed 70° with fire heat. It sometimes rises to 85'", and even 

 90° by sun heat. The average night temperature is 58'. The 

 pots stand on a slate slab close to the front lights, and are kept 

 about an inch above the slate by some pieces of tile in order to 

 aDow the warm air of the house to circulate under as well as 

 around them, and also to insure a free drainage. 1 have tried 

 many sorts, but find nothing to excel, or, indeed, equal the 

 Sion House Improved. Perhaps at no distant date I shall 

 give the details of my practice in growing and ripening a crop 

 of Melons in pots, in the same house, in the intervening 

 months. 



Will "Peter" Idndly give us a few more particulars as to 

 temperature, what depth of cotton waste he uses, &c ? — 

 Peter's Brother. 



RAIDS AFTER FERNS— No. 4. 



WINTER RAID.— TEIGNMOUTH. 

 About fifteen miles west of Exeter the English Channel 

 takes a gentle sweep inland ; lapping up to the base of old red 

 sandstone cliffs and leaping over a sandbar, it carries itssalt 

 waters by the side of a Fir-crowned headland, called the Ness, 

 into the picturesque river Teign, which proudly swells itself 

 into lake-like proportions at high water, giving additional love- 

 liness to meadows of emerald, and com fields golden in sum- 

 mer and ruby-coloured in winter. Facing the east, with a 

 barren sandy flat, caUed the Den, in front, where wild-beast 

 shows contend for pre-eminence with photographic studios and 

 uproarious games of football, there are crescents, and places, 

 and Belle Vues, and public rooms, and baths, sheltering a bright 

 little town of about six thousand inhabitants which finds 

 congregations for two Enghsh and one Roman Catholic church, 

 and for chapels of a variety of incongruous theological opinions. 

 Teignmouth, or. as it is called, Tingmuth, is a town of con- 

 siderable spirit, which developes itself in sundry spasmodic 

 efforts to distinguish itself, in many of which it succeeds with 

 tolerable effect. It has its lifeboat, which presents a " very 

 swashing and martial outside " to the beholders as it is occa- 

 sionally paraded through the town on a triumphal car, looking 

 BO very bright and new as to be suggestive rather of sunshine 

 and blue seas, than of those grand heroic times when Devon- 

 shire Drake gained a world's applause by his deeds of sailor 

 daring. A pier is in course of building, which will bring yachts, 

 and a still greater number of pleasure-seekers ; while the good 

 drainage and salubrious air invite those who are seeking for 

 health, and who, with care, may enjoy a happy combination of 

 health and pleasure. 



The amusements are, perhaps, scarcely of the same aristo- 

 cratic nature as those of its sister watering-place Torquay. 

 Concerts and balls are of rare occurrence, and but moderately 



attended ; but there are plenty of cheap entertainments, and 

 the pubhc who one day pay a shilling to see spiritualism in 

 full blow, the next day pay another to have their new-bom 

 faith shivered to atoms, and one is inclined to wonder how any 

 errors exist, so many shillings are paid to have them exposed ; 

 M. Dobbler cuts the Gordian knot that binds the Davenport 

 brothers, and Signor Gavazzi takes away all standing-groond 

 from under the Pope's revered toe ; and every error picks the 

 pocket of its neighbonr. And, lest these amusements should not 

 suffice for all minds. Nature has stepped in, supplying others 

 with a liberal hand, so that few places have a greater share of 

 them than Teignmouth. Beautiful madrepores strew the shore 

 across the ferry at Labrador, and sea beasts and rare seaweeds 

 and shells are to be found lurking amongst the sea-laved rocks. 



Within a pleasant walk there is a sandy waste called the 

 Warren, which furnishes many rare wild flowers, amongst 

 them the little pale blue Trichonema columnar, or Bulbocodium, 

 the Warren being its only English habitat, and it resists every 

 endeavour to naturalise it in other soil. 



The winter in Teignmouth scarcely deserves the name of 

 winter, some flowers grace every month of the year, and ere 

 February blows itself into March the Galanthus nivalis foUowB 

 the wake of the Primula vulgaris and the Vinca minor ; the 'Viola 

 palustris encroaches on the white V. odorata, and the Narcissus 

 pseudo-narcissus weeps at the loss of its neighbour the sweet- 

 scented Petasites vulgaris ; while in the hedge-bank the fragile 

 tiny Potentilla fragariastrum is the herald of the more welcome 

 Fragaria vesca, which promises not only beauty in spring, but 

 also a fruitful summer. The winter in Teignmouth has all 

 these, and added to these it has its Ferns. 



When the Filix-mas, the Filix-fctmina, and the Lastreas are 

 for the most part ■' gone nnderground to see their mother root," 

 the more hardy Polystichum still flourishes, and furnishes 

 many a beautiful variety to reward the patient himter. Nor is 

 the decoration of Fern-land left to the Polystichums alone, the 

 .\splenium adiantum nigrum may be sought after with great 

 effect, the absence of other leaves and blossoms making its 

 bright fronds all the more apparent. Aspleniums trichomanes 

 and marinum may also be found ; but where ? XIarinum has 

 a wayward choice, and has located herself in the tunnels of the 

 railway, where hardy spirits, furnished with permission and 

 a lantern, may find her. In the overhanging clififs she also 

 makes her home, but is fast disappearing beneath the keen eyes 

 of Fern-collectors. But it is not on the walls of railway tunnels, 

 nor on the scarped cliff that my winter raids are made, but up 

 sheltered lanes, whose high banks, covered with grassy foliage, 

 from which delicate blossoms shine like stars, afford thousands 

 of specimens of the, par exct'lhjice, Devonshire Fern. 



The evergreen character of the Polystichum angulare. with 

 its endless variations of dehcately chiselled fronds, must ever 

 make it a general favourite. There is, first, its common form, 

 soft, feathery, lanceolate fronds, bi-pinnate, or divided into 

 pinnie, and these again into pinnules, which are attached by a 

 distinct stalk to the rachisof the pinnfe ; the shape of the little 

 pinnules somewhat obtuse, with an ear-like projection at the 

 base, running in an outward direction towards the apex ; each 

 pinnule serrate, and the serratures have bristles ; the sori ter- 

 minal or en the upper part of the frond. Should there be any 

 distinct departure from the above description, such as the 

 anterior basal pinnules being much larger than the others, or 

 divided again, thus becoming tri-pinnate, or nearly tri-innnate, 

 the Fern-coUeetor will at once know that he has a variety of the 

 species, and not the original type. The Teignmouth lanes fur- 

 nish a goodly company of these beautiful varieties, each pre- 

 senting some distinct feature, which separates it entirely from 

 any approximating form. 



As I was lately hunting up the Holcomb lane I chanced to 

 meet with a magnificent specimen of decompositum, of all the 

 varieties of P. angulare the most free-growing and jolly-looking; 

 it rivals subtripinnatum in size, but the latter has a stiffer 

 growth, and its pinnules are more acute. Soon after I came on 

 subtripinnatum. and for the moment I thought I had found 

 tripinnatum, so much divided were the basal pinnules, but as 

 the little pinnulets had no distinct and separate stalk, my first 

 transport settled down into a quiet satisfaction, and I was 

 rewarded by finding a little fmther on the pretty hastulatum. 

 In this variety the entire frond is so finely and regularly cut that 

 w hen held up to the hght it appears like lacework ; the pinnules 

 are small, distinct, sharp in outline, and with a lobe or ear 

 which stands out clear of the next pinnule. Still further on I 

 fcund Polystichum angulare acutum. the name of which defines 

 I its character, the apex of frond, pinna?, and pinnule being acute 



