92 CONSTRUCTION OF FERNERIES [CH. 



grouted with sandstone and lime rubbish mixed with peat- 

 mould. At the darker, shadier end arches can be made of 

 the sods of turf and the walls behind them lined with them, 

 and in these alcoves (which are thus secured from any direct 

 rays of the sun) Todeas and the Trtchomanes radicans 

 (Killarney Fern) and Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense may 

 be planted, and when syringed and kept moist their 

 rhizomes will soon run over the surface of the turf and 

 grow as in a state of nature, and, moreover, their beautiful 

 filmy fronds may be admired without the trouble so often 

 experienced, of peering into dark corners under greenhouse 

 stages in the vain hope of admiring them there. 



I have found the Woodwardia radicans one of the 

 most effective plants for furnishing a fernery at the 

 beginning. When it grows too rank it may be easily 

 cut back or even rooted up; but its great, healthy, over- 

 shadowing fronds give a tropical appearance even to a 

 very plain house, and in such shelter frost has very little 

 effect on it. 



In such a house, constructed and prepared as I have 

 endeavoured to describe, Ferns will thrive and look their 

 best, owing to the absence of draughts and droughts and 

 direct sunlight, and to the possibility of maintaining a 

 constantly moist and equable atmosphere. 



There is no reason why Ferns should not be successfully 

 grown in earthenware pots and pans, and thus be moved 

 about the fernery and into greenhouse or sitting-room, as 

 may be found necessary. Their home, however, should be 

 the fernery itself, and if they must leave it, the sooner 



