AprU 3, 1866. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTDRE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEIl. 



259 



in a Tery remarkable degree — so acute, that having once heard 

 the name I think no one could mistake the Fern. 



But it is not Ferns only that I have found in that Holcomb 

 lane. Wandering there one day we came on a poor, almost 

 shoeless, footsore sailor lad ; looking so tired and hungry, we 

 stopped to speak to him. A stranger, knowing no word of 

 Enghsh, he told us in French that he was from Holland, and 

 on his way to Plymouth. Walking from Exeter he had lost 

 his way. " Had he money ? " Only a few halfpence, but he did 

 not wish for more. " Oh, no," he said, when we offered him 

 silver ; " you see I did not beg. You know I did not beg." He 

 spoke so vehemently that I wondered ; so I said, " Certainly you 

 did not beg; but, nevertheless, accept a little gift." " Oh! no, 

 it was not possible. He was only out of Exeter jail that very 

 morning because he had found himself without silver, and de- 

 manded some. Ah ! he did not like England, she was hard to 

 strangers. He was hungry, and he could not beg." I looked 

 in the honest face and believed the lad, so we took him home. 

 He had never seen an English home. I offered him a chair. 

 " Never, never in your presence," he said. We gave him meat 

 and breatl, and spirits, and then we took him to the railway, 

 and gave him a ticket to Plymouth, with money for a night's 

 lodging. Tears came in the poor fellow's eyes. It could not 

 be true. He had never seen me before. Was I Enghsh ? and 

 then he added softly, when I told him why it was, •■ Yes, yes, I 

 also have a home, and a sister married to a pastor." And so 

 we parted, never to know each other's name on earth ; and I 

 often wonder how the Dutch lad will describe the party who 

 helped him in his need ; for verily it must have seemed a 

 strange one, that party of latlies and gentlemen armed with 

 steel weapons and huge baskets, searching so diligently for 

 weeds in the hedgerows of England. 



Within a walk of Teignmouth I have lately found Poly- 

 stichum angulare intermedium, and, I believe, biserratum. The 



texture of these Ferns, so far as my experience goes, differs 

 considerably from those of other varieties of P. angulare ; both 

 primary and secondary rachides are stiff, and the pinnules 

 are connected with the rachis in all but the lower pinnfe by a 

 winged stalk. I found in the same hedge dissimile : this is a 

 very curious variety, the pinna; being scarcely in any two aHke ; 

 some are forked at the end, some do not contain more Ihan 

 five or six pinnules, while others end abruptly in only two ; the 

 pinnules are also different in shape and size, while the texture 

 of the whole frond is something like that of intermedium. 



Another very interesting variety of Polystichum angulare 

 growing near Teignmouth is the densely pinnuled quadi-atum, 

 with its stiff narrowish fronds, the piunie of which have im- 

 bricated pinnules, neat, roundabout little things, the ear-like 

 lobe of which hides itself beneath its neighbour's sheltering 

 wing. It is unlike any other variety known to me, and had not 

 a high authority named it for me, I fear I should have called it 

 imbricatum ; but this latter has a slightly " winged petiole," 

 which quadratum has not ; moreover the basal anterior pinnule 

 is but a trifle larger than those next succeeding. 



Other varieties that I have found still remain unnamed, and 

 I doubt not but that there are many others still to be found. 

 The beautiful forms of proliferum WoUastoni and cristatum 

 are natives of Devonshire, and to these Holeaua has lately 

 been added, the latter being found within a few miles of Teign- 

 mouth. 



Of the Asplenium adiantum nigrum, Teignmouth furnishes 

 many a goodly specimen. I have found them acute and obtuse, 

 with intermediate forms. The flabellatum was found near 

 Bishop's Teignton, and the Bellairsie, in the neighbourhood of 

 Haldon : and all the Ferns that have been eniunerated can be 

 found on a winter's raid while inhaling purest oxygen with a 

 fair mixture of ozone (if ozone can be exhibited in winter !) is 

 one of its component parts. — Fern-huntbess. 



I VISITED a friend of mine a few days ago, who showed me a 

 flower-border plan, which I send. It struck me at the time as 

 being well adapted for planting bulbs in the small compart- 

 ments, bedding 

 plants in the large 

 ones, and standard 

 Eoses in the cir- 

 cles. In winter it 

 is eligible for co- 

 loured materials 

 in the small com- 

 partments and in 

 the circles, with 

 some nice dwarf 

 plants in the beds. 

 With a judicious 



arrangement it would look well all the 

 year. It is not laid out at any place 

 to my knowledge. 



It may not be out of place for me 

 to describe the sort of compasses I 

 use when doing such work. It is 

 nearly similar to the beam compasses 

 described in the " Gardener's Assis- 

 tant," at page 134. I took a piece of deal board 1 inch thick, 

 2J inches wide, and 10 feet long ; I cut it straight along the 

 middle from end to end ; then I took a piece of elder wood 

 2i inches long, removed the pith, and tied it at the end of 

 the beam between the two sides. I then took two pegs, one 



a. 



FLOWER-BORDEE. 



about 12 inches long, and the other about 8 inches in length. 

 The end of the long peg, a, I cut unite round, so as to turn 

 freely in the elder, and the end of the other peg I cut 



flat nearly to the 

 same thickness as 

 the elder, and so 

 that the beam 

 would rest on 

 the shoulder, as 

 shown at 6 in the 

 engraving. To se- 

 cure the peg, b, 

 from moving from 

 its place, I cut a 

 piece out of it 

 above the beam, 

 so as to form an eye, as at h. I then 

 made a pin in the shape of a label, 

 with one end smaller than the other, 

 so as to put it in the eye above the 

 beam to tighten it. There is no trouble 

 in pulling the pin back, shifting the 

 peg to the required place, and putting 

 the pin back again. It is scarcely 

 necessary to say that the peg, «, is put into the ground in a per- 

 pendicular position, and the elder end of the shaft dropped 

 down on it, so as to revolve around it as the axis. The peg, b, 

 describes the circle, and passes over any peg that may be put 

 in the ground to mark other parts of the figure. — M. O'Donnell. 



\l 



& 



Beam-compasses. 



WORK FOR THE 'WEEK. 



KITCHEM G.\KDEN. 



DnEiMG the last month we have had such a continuance of 

 wet and unsettled weather that little progress has been made in 

 the sowing of seeds, or even the digging and trenching of ground. 

 The late drenching rains will convince the owner and occupier 

 of every plot of ground, of the necessity and importance of 

 thorough drainage. Ground that is thoroughly drained takes 

 but a few hours to drain off the superfluous moistiu'e, and, 

 under such circumstances, it is soon in working condition ; 



whereas, ground that is imperfectly drained will be days, and 

 in some instances weeks, before it be in a fit state for the re- 

 ception of seeds. The gardener who has his ground thoroughly 

 drained will have his crops appearing above the surface before 

 those whose ground is undrained will be able to deposit the 

 seed. Proceed without delay at every favourable opportunity 

 in preparing and cropping the ground, according to last month's 

 directions. After the late rains it will be advisable to pass a 

 heavy roller over the gravel walks to set andbiud them well for 



