THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 19 



provided to suit the various requirements of the plants. There may 

 be a shady dell shadowed with a few large trees, where a fernery 

 would be acceptable for its beauty and interest, and render a 

 summer-house or rustic seat a more agreeable resort than it would 

 be without a fernery. The capabilities of the district must deter- 

 mine the nature of the material to be employed. In the suburbs of 

 towns " burrs " from the brick-kiln are usually the best material 

 available, and answer admirably. If the soil of the place is suitable, 

 the expense of carting in peat is saved ; but if it is mere clay or loam, 

 it will nevertheless serve for the foundation, for the strong-growing 

 ferns, such as the common lastrea and the brake, will root down 

 vigorously into it, if assisted in the first instance by planting them 

 in a good fern-mixture. Although the subject admits of almost 

 endless variety of treatment, we will suppose a case in order to 

 sketch out a mode of procedure, which may furnish the key for the 

 formation of a fernery altogether different to the suppositious one 

 that for a few moments will now engage our attention. There is 

 then a quiet spot shaded by trees on the far side of the lawn, quite 

 shut out from the flower garden by belts of shrub and a silvery 

 stream. We shall dig out a broad and irregular trench and throw 

 up the earth to form banks and knolls. These we shall face with 

 stone or burrs to form a picturesque scene, and provide for it a few 

 distinctive features, such as groups of tree butts, an arch of thorn, 

 or a pile of rock ; the interstices communicate with a great body of 

 sandy peat which is to be clothed with rock-loving ferns. Or we 

 may on a hill commanding a view of the whole, construct a ruin, 

 taking care to enclose in the walls an abundant bed of soil, so that 

 ferns planted in the chinks and hollows will have a good chance of 

 prospering. The very smallest thing possible for a feature would 

 be an open central space, enclosed with a few trees of an airy, grace- 

 ful character, to avoid interruptiou of the view, and therein a quiet 

 summer-house with a pile of rock at the entry, and a few grand 

 specimen ferns perched on blocks of wood — a pleasant lover's 

 retreat, or if we must ignore romance, a cool grot for a friend and a 

 cigar. 



The banks and knolls should have a coating of sandy peat varying 

 in depth from six inches to two feet, and here and there some of the 

 burrs should be taken out, the natural soil below them removed to 

 the depth of a foot or so, and the place filled up with peat. The 

 ferns must be planted iD positions suitable to the several kinds. In 

 the lower and damper spots the lady-fern, the hart's-tongue, the 

 osmunda, and the brake will thrive. On the more Alpine spots 

 many of the smaller ferns will prosper. On the slopes, and indeed 

 everywhere, the common lastrea will take kindly to almost any kind 

 of soil. There are many fine plants that associate with ferns 

 admirably, and we have no idea of restricting the cultivator's range 

 of choice to ferns only. The equisetums are most elegant in their 

 outlines and colours, and well adapted for damp and shady situations. 

 The hardy bamboos, and a number of fine grasses, not the least 

 important of them being the pampas and the arundo, harmonize 

 with the scene admirably. Bits of colour are not only admissible 



u_ January. 



