14 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



little tiny rockery can be got up, and the rock-plants must be in 

 proportion to its size. 



The same may be said of the area. A rockery for ferns would 

 thrive there very well, and be a very interesting object to my city 

 readers, who seldom have a chance of beholding them in their native 

 haunts. The shade and protection afforded by an area is just the 

 thing required for ferns. 



I can fancy a fern rockery built up against the area wall around 

 tbe root of a robust Ivy, where the graceful frouds of the ferns and 

 the pretty little Linoria and Sedums form a natural rustic bank 

 from which the ivy seems to spring, rockery and ivy forming to- 

 gether a picture of beauty. 



The common hardy British ferns are tbe kinds to cultivate in 

 the area rockery. Always be particular to water them gently over- 

 head every morning and evening during the season. 



There are a great many contrivances in the way of baskets, 

 brackets, flower-stands, and rockeries which a person of some taste 

 and ingenuity can work out. It only requires an imaginative mind, 

 and proper means and appliances at hand, to contrive and work 

 out numberless little inventions for the embellishment of town 

 gardens with the lovely flower and foliage plants now so cheap 

 and plentiful. 



The principal care of the gardener must always be that the plants 

 be kept clean and properly watered, for it is a truly miserable sight 

 to see town plants sickly and drooping for want of moisture, and 

 begrimed with dust, as if neglect had claimed them entirely for his 

 own. I do not believe any of my readers will allow their lovely 

 flowers to reach that state of wretchedness. 



THE AURICULA AS A BORDER PLANT. 



HE great care bestowed upon the valuable named varieties, 

 that is to say, the florists' auriculas, appears to place 

 this plant at a disadvantage as one adapted for the 

 borders. Yet we have not a finer border plant, pro- 

 vided it has proper treatment. The common border, in 

 which all sorts of plants are grown, will suit them very well, as a 

 peep into almost any cottage garden will suffice to demonstrate. 

 But to enjoy them in an especial manner as border flowers, prepare 

 for them a selected spot, facing north, open and breezy, and shaded 

 from the mid-day sun in summer. There need not be any elaborate 

 preparation of the soil, but a deep, well-drained, sandy loam is 

 absolutely needful. If the plantation is to be a large one, it will be 

 desirable to raise a stock of plants from seed, and then the question 

 arises, how to obtain it? Shop seed of auriculas is, generally 

 speaking, poor stuff; but there may be somewhere a trader who can 

 and will part with a pinch worth sowing. As we are bound to give 

 direct advice, we counsel the amateur to purchase a few of the 



