THE HARDY FERN GARDEN. 185 



Osmunda, which thrives amazingly, is in a low swamp. The soil used 

 for these Royal Ferns is a mixture of good loam and fibrous peat. The 

 better deciduous kinds of Polypodium, such as P. Phegopteris and 

 P. Dryopteris, have sheltered positions ; and in quiet nooks may be 

 found charming groups of the Parsley Fern, and Cystopteris fragilis, 

 a most delicate and graceful Fern. Lastrea Filix-mas and its varieties 

 occupy the more exposed positions in company with fine colonies 

 of the evergreen kinds, comprising some unique varieties of the 

 Polystichums, Scolopendriums, Polypodiums, etc. A plentiful supply 

 of water is available. 



The Fern -lover will remember that not only have we our 

 own beautiful native Ferns for adorning our gardens, but also the 



hardy Ferns of America, Asia, and the con- 

 Exotic hardy tinent of Europe. As to the hardiness of 

 Ferns. exotic Ferns, Mr Milne-Redhead writes from 



Clitheroe : 



Is it not strange that we so seldom see, even in good gardens, any well-grown 

 plants of exotic Osmundas, Struthiopteris, &c. ? Here, after a long spell of hot, 

 dry weather, we had on May 20, 1896, a sharp snap of frost which completely cut 

 off the more than usually beautiful flowers of Azalea mollis, and seriously injured 

 the young growths of some Japanese Pines, such as Abies firma, A. sachalinensis, 

 and others. This frost turned the young fronds of our English Filix-mas and 

 Filix-foemina quite black. Close by these plants, and under similar conditions of 

 soil and exposure, the American Adiantum pedatum, i foot high, and the tender- 

 looking Onoclea sensibilis were quite unhurt, and Osmunda interrupta and O. 

 cinnamomea entirely escaped and are now very fine. Our English O. regalis was 

 slightly touched, but the Brazilian O. spectabilis brought by myself from dry 

 banks in the Organ Mountains was not even browned in its early and delicate 

 fronds. All the Ferns I have named are great ornaments to any moist and rather 

 shady place in the shrubbery. In a sheltered nook in the rock garden I find, to 

 my surprise, that Gymnogramma triangularis has survived the perils not only of 

 a frosty spring, but the still greater ones of a wet autumn and winter, and is now 

 throwing up healthily its pretty triangular fronds, whose under surface is quite 

 white with the powder peculiar to the genus in fact a hardy silver Fern. 



A visit to Mr Sclater's Fern garden at Newick shows us the good 

 effects that may be had by using the nobler hardy Ferns both native 

 and foreign in a bolder way, and often in the open sun. The idea 

 that a fernery is best in a dark corner has had unfortunate results in 

 keeping the grace of such plants out of the garden picture. Hardy 

 Ferns are being used in bold and simple ways at Kew, where at one 

 time they were in an obscure fernery, and even if some Ferns require 

 shade, many do not in our cool climate. Shade is, moreover, an 

 elastic term ; the bold hardy Ferns one sees in the American wood- 

 lands would not have too much sun in the open in Britain, provided 

 they were in the right soil. 



