CULTUBE. 167 



them in pots ; but, for your comfort, let us tell you that a 

 great number of species will grow in the common soil and 

 borders of your villa garden. 



We once saw, in the garden of Mrs. Priestley, the Grove, 

 Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, the finest specimen we ever met 

 with of that beautiful Fern the Ceterach cfficinarum, growing 

 in the open border. It was 9 or 10 inches high, and 6 or 

 7 inches across, forming a dense little bush of exceedingly fine 

 fronds. The soil is stony, but had been mixed with heath 

 mould, and the plant had thriven well in it undisturbed and 

 unprotected for many years. IN"ow, this species is generally 

 found wild, growing in crevices of rocks and on old decaying 

 stone walls. We have seen and gathered it in the latter on the 

 roadside leading to and from the rail way- station at Tetbury, 

 in Gloucestershire ; but the wild specimens were pygmies 

 compared with the one in the border of Mrs. Priestley's 

 garden. We from this fact are inclined to think that a dry 

 border would grow many species that we usually consider 

 require rockwork to grow them on ; but, as every rock species 

 has not been tried in such a border, it would not be advisable 

 to risk the entire stock in such an experiment. More common 

 species, such as Polypodium vulgare, Scolopendrium vulgare, 

 and the common Male and Female Ferns, and many others, 

 where the stock is plentiful, might be planted out at once 

 in common borders. 



A third method of growing a collection of Ferns may be 

 adopted where rockwork cannot be formed and the trouble of 

 growing them in pots is objected to, and that is to throw up a 

 bank of earth 3 or 4 feet high, either in a circle or longitu- 

 dinally, forming it into, as it were, narrow terraces some 

 9 inches or a foot wide ; the face or upright part to be built 

 with small stones or flints. If the circular form is adopted, 

 then an opening should be left through the bank to enter 

 within the circle, and the inner sides of the bank should be 

 planted with Ferns loving shade ; and a circular flat bed 



