54 MASSACHUSETTS HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



use. I do not know of any species other than North American 

 used in out-door cultivation in this region ; doubtless there may 

 be a few that would do well, natives of China, Japan, and Northern 

 Europe. A very interesting paper on the " Geographical Distribu- 

 tion of American Ferns " has just appeared in the " Bulletin of the 

 Torrey Botanical Club," from J. H. Redfield, which may give us 

 light upon this subject, and perhaps show us where to look for 

 ferns to cultivate out of doors. It has always been a surprise that 

 more of our hardy ferns should not be used as borders to lawns 

 and at the edges of groups of trees and shrubbery, especially where 

 there is a northern exposure. Such species as Strutliiopteris Ger- 

 manica (growing six feet high), Onoclea sensibilis (two feet), 

 Aspidium spinulosum (three feet), A. cristatum (three feet), Asple- 

 nium tlielypteroides (three feet), A. Filix-foemina (three feet), all 

 the Osmundas (three to four feet), Dicksonia (two to three feet), 

 and many others, would be most beautiful in such situations, par- 

 ticularly Osmimda Claytoniana, the fertile fronds of which, with 

 their dark bunches of fruits, form a most beautiful contrast to the 

 light green sterile ones which grow in a whorl around them. Aspid- 

 ium, marginale, Fhegopteris (two species), Asplenium (two or three 

 species), Woodsia (two species), Polypodium, and some others, 

 are useful on the rock-work. I have about thirty species of 

 natives, cultivated in an odd corner out-of-doors, where they serve 

 as a screen before an ugly fence, require no attention (except per- 

 haps to be watered during an extended drought), and are a source 

 of great pleasure to myself and friends. I wish this branch of 

 fern culture might receive more attention. 



Ferns are troubled with as many pests as most plants, not even 

 the hardy ones escaping. The green fly is of little consequence, 

 as it is easily kept out of any well-regulated house. The various 

 scales are more to be dreaded, as they often increase unobserved 

 for a long time on the under side of a frond. The thrip is very 

 hard to kill out when once established ; it is most likely to attack 

 plants which are in a temperature higher than their natural one. 

 The red spider will be kept down, as with the roses, by syringing. 

 Various slugs and even the currant worm will attack the out-door 

 species, and another cr3'ptogamous plant, a fungus, is often 

 found on the fronds of ferns, imitating by its shape and position 

 the fructification of the fern itself. 



In regard to nomenclature, the many synonyms found among 



