THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE, 303 
(3) 
A SHOW FERNERY. 
mS I have become proprietor of what may be properly 
H| designated “a show fernery,’’ not having expected or 
intended such a thing, it may be proper to make a note 
upon the subject. The hailstorm of July 23 destroyed 
the roof, and a great part of the front also, of our fern 
house. That was only a part of the loss we suffered, but it is 
enough to refer to now as part of a little history. This fernery 
consists of rockery built up against a wall and continued round the 
further end and front in form of a bank, beneath which are pipes for 
heating. The ferns had made a splendid growth, and the appear- 
ance of the house just prior to the storm was all that a lover of ferns 
could desire. The peppering of the hailstones on the roof was so 
severe that the sash-bars as well as the glass were destroyed, and so 
there was a good excuse aitorded for somewhat of an alteration. 
Having carefully observed from time to time the satisfactory growth 
of ferns under green glass at Kew, I resolved to employ the same in 
providing my lean-to fernery with a new roof. No sooner thought 
of than done. In three weeks from the day of the storm the work 
was finished. The injury done to the ferns by the storm was 
certainly not great, and the ferns have now in great part recovered, 
and we see the fernery already in perfection, or nearly so, under a 
green light. The effect is truly magical. It affords a delightful 
surprise, and suggests to our friends that this is the kind of style in 
which to get up a genuine show fernery, with grottoes and splashing 
cascades, and above all things a grand growth of ferns. The glass 
used in the case under consideration is of a somewhat deep tint of 
green; its effect when the sun shines is not only to cause the ferns 
to appear in the most resplendent hues of golden green, but in 
many instances, where the white light from the open door conflicts 
with the green light from above, the most curious shades of rosy iride- 
scence appear. In particular, one great tuft of the crispum variety 
of Scolopendrium vulgare is thus coloured, and, until the delusion is 
explained, everyone who sees it for the first time regards it as a 
remarkable case of variegation. Nor is this the only curious 
incident. Wherever white light comes in, crossing the green rays, 
we have lovely tints of rose, crimson, and ruby. There is one nook 
in a part of the rockery at the end of the house where the white 
light used to show through chinks in the rock in a most unromantic 
manner; but the green roof has made romance of that, the gleams 
of light through the chinks from the white glass at the end appear 
now of the most delicious tint of rose, and at times the whole front 
—which is still of white (that is to say, common transparent) glass— 
is of a rich rosy hue. These effects are, of course, in a certain sense 
illusory. The effect of the green glass on the eye is to bring forth 
the complementary rays of the spectrum. But no consideration of 
the philosophy of the case mars our enjoyment of the chromatic 
witchery, and as green glass has been proved to suit ferns admirably, 
we have no fear as to the result ultimately. 
October. 
