THE FERN PARADISE. 



certainly recommend the culture together of 

 Ferns and flowers wherever possible. But the 

 chief object of this volume is to provide for those 

 circumstances under which flowers will not grow 

 to provide for the filling up with ' something 

 which is fresh and green ' of sunless and uncul- 

 tivated corners, now unutilized, bare, and plant- 

 less. And no plants, as is sufficiently shown in 

 the volume, are in every way so well adapted for 

 these ( fillings up ' as Ferns. Hence the pro- 

 posals of ' THE FERN PARADISE.' Yet the Author 

 fully endorses the following suggestions of The 

 Spectator :' A plant-case, or even a window- 

 box, can be kept beautiful, at very small expense, 

 by being filled, in the first instance, with Ferns, 

 with a carpet of moss, spaces being made here 

 and there by the insertion of an empty pot of 

 sufficient size for the reception of a flowering 

 plant or two in its season, which will look doubly 

 beautiful from its verdant surroundings. These 

 little window-gardens, too, need not be costly, 

 especially where either a tiny bow-window or a 

 broad window- seat may happen to exist ; and if 

 on a ground-floor, with a little outside space, 



44 



