^^^•> 1 Lucas, Ferns Grown in the Open. 89 



1919 J ' 



FERNS GROWN IN THE OPEN. 



By a. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc. (Hon. Member). 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, Sth Sept., 19 19.) 



The monsoonal rains arc now falling, and the long drought 

 and scorching days are over ; so we can take stock of the 

 damage and see how our ferns have stood the long time of 

 severe trial. 



Probably many members of the Club have grown ferns under 

 the friendly shade of the bush-house, and by ordinary care have 

 brought their favourites safely through the summer. They 

 may be interested in the experiment of growing these plants 

 out in the open and a few degrees nearer the equator. 



The situation of my house is at Gordon, on the line between 

 Milson's Point and "^Hornsby, about 8 miles from the first- 

 named station, and 380 feet above sea-level. During 1918 I 

 converted a part of my ground still occupied by gum-trees 

 and native bushes into an open-air fernery. The plot is well 

 sheltered, especially from the westerly winds — with us some- 

 times red-hot in summer and icy cold in winter. It is practi- 

 cally untouched by frosts, and shaded by trees from the morning 

 sun, but fully exposed to its mid-day rays. 



It was divided up into a number of quasi-vockencs. Stone 

 is abundant in the heads of the gulHes near the house. The 

 ground of each was worked up, a guard wall of large stones 

 built around it, and the space filled up nearly to the level of 

 the stones with leaf -mould, light earth, charcoal, and small 

 bits of sandstone and a Httle manure. On this, a foot or so 

 within the outer wall, another similar wall of smaller radius 

 was built, and the ground formed as befoic. Mostly I stopped 

 here, but the largest and most central bed — a circular one — 

 had three concentric zones around the central elevated circle. 

 The topmost bed of this was occupied by a large Bird's Nest 

 Fern. One of the zones was filled up entirely with Maiden 

 Hair Fern, Adiantnm cethiopiciim, which grows wild in our 

 neighbourhood. The other zones and all the other beds were 

 filled rather closely with ferns, with a few mosses and liver- 

 worts in between them. Visits to Illawarra, the Kurrajong. 

 and the Blue Mountains provided most of the plants, and no 

 place knew that it had been robbed. A hose was available for 

 watering, and this was necessary most evenings in the hot, 

 dry summer. 



Very few indeed of the ferns have died right down, though 

 a good many began to look brown in patches. Among the 

 tenderest seemed to be the Lindsayas. L. microphylla, the 

 most beautiful, is very hard to keep, though sheltered among 



