genus Asplenium ; and, if the wall be carried up higher than the 

 adjoining part of, the bank, so that the latter may be raised against 

 it, the Common Polypody will be induced to overrun the slope 

 with luxuriance and pleasing effect, its matted rhizomes being at 

 first kept firm, by disposing here and there a few heavy pieces of 

 chalk-flint, or other stones. 



It must be understood that the chief recommendations of such a 

 bank, are the facility with which it is constructed, and the insurance 

 of good drainage. Of course the water readily running off the 

 higher parts, renders it necessary that evaporation should be 

 checked as much as possible, and in order to effect this, irregular 

 masses of stone, and cemented brick, from the kiln or the old 

 furnace, may be scattered upon the surface around the roots of the 

 ferns ; these will not only retain a considerable degree of moisture 

 beneath, but afford shelter to the foliage, and, carefully selected 

 and disposed, may be rendered more subservient to the picturesque 

 than elaborately constructed rock-work. 



Many persons, in following out fancies of the latter kind, with 

 more of the grotesque than good taste, employ the vitrified clinkers 

 from the potteries and glass-works; but, as the object to be ob- 

 tained is less ornament than utility, I prefer the brick, on account 

 of its porosity and the quantity of water it is capable of retaining ; 

 and that the ferns have a similar preference, is evident from the 

 complicated masses of root-fibre and spongioles that form on the 

 surface of the soil, and even ramify into the pores and crevices of 

 these rude masses wherever they have remained for a few months 

 undisturbed. 



The classification of the Ferns being very arbitrary and unsettled, 

 and our view comprising only those of a particular locality far from 

 rich in the number of species, I have not considered it requisite to 

 disturb the sequence of the genera by allusion to it in the body of 

 the work. As at present constructed, the British Ferns are in- 



