28 HISTORY OF BRITISH PERNS. 



very readily watched, would consist in inverting a porous 

 flowerpot in a shallow dish or pan of water, lai'ge enough to 

 take also the rim of an enclosing bell-glass, which should 

 cover some surface of the water. A small cup or vase, set 

 on the top of the inverted pot, with two or three worsted 

 siphons, would keep its sides always damp ; the spores 

 scattered over the sides of this moistened porous earthen- 

 ware would find a proper nidus for their development, 

 which might thus be watched with great facility. It is to 

 be borne in mind, however, that the seedling plants arc 

 not so readily transplanted from an earthenware or stone 

 surface, as they are when growing on the soil. 



The general features of cvilture — which it will be suffi- 

 cient here to notice — are shade, shelter, and abundance of 

 moisture. Neither of these arc, however, essential to all 

 the species, but when judiciously combined they produce 

 the conditions under which all the species admit of being 

 very successfully grown. 



In the garden, Ferns seem only appropriately introduced 

 on what is called rockwork, which generally means a bank 

 of earth irregularly terraced with misshapen blocks of 

 stone, or by masses of some other hard porous material, 

 the vitrified condomcrations formed in the burning of 



