FERNS, FENCES, AND WHITE BIRCHES 191 



feelings of a mat of exquisite maidenhair rent from a 

 shady slope with moss and partridge vine at its feet, and 

 quivering elusive woodland shade above, on finding itself 

 unceremoniously crowded into a bed, between cannas or 

 red geraniums ! Or fancy the despair of either of the 

 wide- spreading Osmundas, lovers of stream borders 

 opulent with leaf-mould, or wood hollows deep with 

 moist richness, on finding themselves ranged in a row 

 about the porch of a summer cottage, each one tied firmly 

 to a stake like so many green parasols stuck in the dry 

 loam point downward ! 



It is not so much a question of how many species of 

 native ferns can be domesticated, for given sufficient 

 time and patience all things are possible, but how many 

 varieties are either decorative, interesting, or useful 

 away from their native haunts. For any one taking 

 what may be called a botanical interest in ferns, a semi- 

 artificial rockery, with one end in wet ground and the 

 other reaching dry-wood conditions, is extremely inter- 

 esting. In such a place, by obtaining some of the earth 

 with each specimen and tagging it carefully, an out-of- 

 door herbarium may be formed and something added 

 to it every time an excursion is made into a new region. 

 Otherwise the ferns that are worth the trouble of trans- 

 planting and supplying with soil akin to that from which 



