THE HARDY FERNS 



The collection of Hardy Ferns was entirely rearranged along 

 the eastern border in 1892, when the bed was brought into 

 proper condition with suitable compost. The border was re- 

 made in 1909 ; but it is still very far from our ideal of the kind 

 of habitat in which ferns luxuriate when in a state of nature. 



There is a good representative series of Polysttchum, 

 Lastraea, and others, and also a collection of those sports and 

 monstrosities of leaf-form which are so highly prized by many 

 fern-growers, but which in a Botanical Garden are perhaps 

 of less interest than many other plants e.g. Fungi or Mosses. 



The Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis, does not do very well 

 perhaps the winters are too cold. The glamour which sur- 

 rounds this fine fern is unfortunately slowly but surely tending 

 towards its extinction in Britain. 



In the south-east corner are 



THE HORSE-TAILS 



Horse-tails, Equisetum, are the poor descendants of a great 

 and ancient family which has been " coming down in the 

 world " ever since Palaeozoic times. The clump of Horse-tails 

 in the south-east corner is a useful reminder of what forests 

 were like in early geological times. If we imagine these 

 plants with stems 8 inches thick and high in proportion, 

 we shall have a mental picture of a forest of Equisetites 

 arenaceus in the Triassic Period. The Calamite Trees of 

 the coal-measures reached a higher stage of development 

 still, for in them, in addition to other structures, secondary 

 wood was formed, just as it is in a modern forest-tree. Some 

 of them had a pith one foot in diameter ! 



THE SOUTHERN HERBACEOUS GARDEN 



In the seventeenth century this land was so subject to floods 

 that it was not cultivated, but by Baxter's time the gardeners 

 had made a practice of using it as a Kitchen Garden. Dr. 



88 



