FERN VERSUS FERNS. 331 



outlines, in slenderness which is not weakness, in 

 verdure ever soft and fresh and tender, an exquisite 

 delight which is perhaps more refined than that which 

 is found in flowers, however rich, however lovely. I 

 remember, in my earlier horticultural days, the remark 

 of a lady, honoured in memory now, but quite of the 

 old school, expressing wonder that I should like to 

 have " fern" in the garden. To her eye thefitix mas 

 was as the filix foemina ; the Polysticlium as the Las- 

 trea; it was " fern ;" not " a fern," but " fern" in the 

 abstract, identified with the acres of brake she had 

 been used to see in her youth, and esteemed as vile as 

 the vilis alga of the poet. But her youthful ideas 

 were imbibed nearly a century ago ; and doubtless, if 

 she had lived to these days, she would have learned 

 to inspect, with discriminating delight, the varying 

 filagree work of the many fronds that arch over her 

 friend's cherished ferneries, and to watch their deve- 

 lopment with an interest little inferior to his own. 



It has been well observed, that Ferns are always in 

 bloom. Winter and summer are alike to most of the 

 stove and greenhouse species ; and many of our native 

 kinds retain their leaves through the winter, with 

 their lustre heightened by its fogs, and scarcely dim- 

 med by its frosts. To a conservatory or hothouse, 

 Ferns lend a peculiar charm ; the exquisite lightness 

 and grace of their forms combine with their evergreen 

 verdure to relieve, and so to augment, the effect of even 

 the aristocratic Orchids. A constant interest attaches 

 to them: new fronds are protruding their curled 



