166 HAEDY FEKNS. 



flourishing where few other plants will live. They will grow 

 in the shade of trees or shrubs, and on the naked exposed 

 rock. Some will only thrive in boggy wet swamps, whilst 

 others will grow on old walls ; in fact there are few places 

 where a judicious selection of the proper species for right 

 situations will not thrive. These selections and situations 

 for them it will be our business in the forthcoming pages 

 to point out 



To grow the greatest number of species two methods may 

 be resorted to. The first, which is the best, is to form a spot 

 to grow them in the open air, by imitating the various positions 

 in which they are found growing wild. This includes rock- 

 work formed with stones, scoria, and stumps of trees, with a 

 plot of ground in front, in which to plant such as are found 

 in wet or shady places. This rockery, if judiciously formed, 

 will of itself be a pleasing object, and in many situations, 

 where the materials are plentiful, will not be very expensive. 

 The other method is to grow them in pots, plunging the 

 commonest and hardiest species in ashes or old tan, and 

 placing the more tender or rock-inhabiting species in a cold 

 pit or frame. This plan has its advantages and disadvantages. 

 The first is that a greater number may be grown in a small 

 space, and the tenderer kinds protected both from the cold 

 and damp of winter, and the scorching rays of the sun in 

 summer. The drawbacks on this method are that they cannot 

 possibly make such fine fronds in pots, unless grown in a 

 greenhouse, as they will in the open air, on a fernery formed 

 purposely for them. Now the choice between these two ways 

 of growing them rests upon the space the cultivator has 

 at command. If he has a place in his grounds where a 

 fernery can be formed, we would say, By all means set about 

 it at once, if you wish to see them thrive well ; but if your 

 space is limited, and a rockwork impossible to be formed 

 without interfering with the arrangement of the garden, then, 

 if you are still desirous of having a collection of Ferns, grow 



