232 T HE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



floor or surrounding a fountain in the centre, and a few more very 

 bad ones in pots thrust into unhappy chinks in the fanciful rockery ; 

 but the affair at beGt is only a costly extension of the idea on which 

 a peep-show at a country fair is founded. The sham stalactites are 

 the attraction, if there be any attraction, and the deluded folks who 

 declare it " beautiful," declare also by that utterance that they 

 have not the least idea of what a fernery should be, or what ferns 

 require. A fernery is for ferns, and must be so ordered that ferns 

 will thrive in it. One good tuft of maidenhair or marine asplenium, 

 beaded with moisture and glistening with health, is to be preferred 

 to all the painted clinkers and childish frippery that was ever seen 

 in a house of this kind, no matter what it may have cost, or how 

 much weariness and solicitude may have been entailed upon the 

 owner to secure its construction. We must have first of all a mass 

 of soil, that the ferns may have abundant root-room, not simply to 

 live, but to groiv and increase. For the rockery there is nothing 

 better than brick or stone, because of the retention of moisture by 

 these materials and the liking of ferns to root next to their surfaces, 

 and even into their substance. Circumstances may prohibit the 

 selection of the material known to be the best, and we must then 

 be content with the next best. Hard vitreous substances, impene- 

 trable by moisture, are unfit for rockeries for ferns under glass, yet 

 they may be used if nothing better can be obtained, provided always 

 there is a large body of soil and abundant openings amongst the 

 facings for the searching roots of ferns to push their way for nourish- 

 ment. 



In towns, the most convenient and suitable stuff for rockeries 

 is the waste of the brick-kiln. The large masses of brick that come 

 from the base of the kiln, and which are commonly known as 

 " burrs," are as good for the purpose as can be desired ; their 

 crannies and crevices suit the rooting habits of the plants, and they 

 are suitable also in colour, and after a time a slow decay of their 

 surface takes place, the result being that troops of mosses come of 

 their own accord, and dot the structure with patches of emerald. 

 Stone is better still, if in rough blocks, and sandstone especially, if 

 it can be had, will favour the well-doing of every inmate of the 

 house. We have seen roots piled up and planted, and they answered 

 well ; but they decay too fast, and are apt to become suddenly 

 clothed with a myriad kinds of objectionable fungi, which are difficult 

 to eradicate. The best staple soil for the purpose is good peat ; but 

 as in many districts this is a costly material, it is necessary to eke it 

 out. Our rockery was built by a bricklayer who thoroughly under- 

 stood the requirements of the case. We made a bed of loam for the 

 foundation, and upon this the peat was piled or thrust in as the 

 work proceeded, and when the bricklayer had finished his work, we 

 found plenty of large and small pockets opening into the solid bank 

 behind ; in these the plants were placed, and filled in with a good 

 mixture of peat and sharp sand. 



Drainage is of more importance with reference to the comfort of 

 the cultivator than the well-doing of the ferns. It must be under- 

 stood, however, that the accumulation of stagnant water at the base 



