469 



Under cultivation they are very impatient of sunshine and stagnant 

 moisture. The plants may be advantageously elevated a little be- 

 tween three small pieces of freestone, the soil being carefully placed 

 about their roots. They must not be kept too damp, especially on 

 the approach of and during the continuance of winter. A shady 

 shelf in a cool greenhouse where there is a free circulation of air, is a 

 good situation in which to preserve them during the dormant season. 

 The tufts should be occasionally divided, the plants being more liable 

 to perish from damping off when they form large masses than when 

 of smaller size." — p. 37. 



Happy the man who has large masses of Woodsia to divide ! 



The species of Lastraea are so easily cultivated that no kind of care 

 is required, unless it be with Oreopteris, which has a great partiality 

 for the fresh air of woods and mountains, and cannot bear a clinker 

 rockery, and utterly abhors the imprisonment of a Wardian case. 



Polystichum Lonchitis " may be kept in good health if potted 

 firmly in a soil of sandy loam, which should be tolerably well drained. 

 The best situation in which to keep it is a cool, moist frame, in which 

 it will grow with tolerable vigour. Fully exposed on rockwork, it 

 will rarely be found to have a prolonged existence, unless the cir- 

 cumstances of its natural localities can be tolerably similated." — p. 71. 



The fern thrives remarkably in cultivation in the Botanic Gardens 

 of Ireland, no care seems required to bring it to a degree of perfec- 

 tion that it rarely reaches in a state of nature. Passing over a num- 

 ber of species, concerning which we find nothing that we can quote 

 with advantage, we arrive at 



Asplenium marinum. " No one, as far as I am aware, has been 

 successful in cultivating this plant in the open air; exposed unshel- 

 tered to our climate it perishes. Whether this be the consequence 

 of its requiring warmth and shelter, as indicated by its foreign habi- 

 tats, or the peculiar saline influences of the sea, as its almost univer- 

 sal position in a wild state may point out, I am unable to say ; but 

 probably it is constitutionally tender, since it is found to grow freely 

 enough, in fact, to attain great luxuriance, in a shady position in the 

 ordinary warm, moist atmosphere of a plant-stove. I find it, however, 

 to grow very readily in a common frame kept closed. It is very dif- 

 ficult to establish when newly moved from its native rocks, the roots 

 being of necessity much injured in the process of removal ; but when 

 once established and placed in a sheltered position, it will grow freely 

 and may be increased without difficulty by the ordinary process of 

 division. Lt delights in shade, and when grown in pots should have 



