THE FERN PARADISE. 



depth of soil ; but that soil must he leaf-mould. 

 We brought the leaf-mould from Devonshire with 

 our little stock of Polypodies. Some of these we 

 planted out in our rockery. All have succeeded 

 to perfection. But the grand plant before us 

 has exceeded our most sanguine expectations. 

 All we did was simply to strew the bottom of a 

 small seed-pan nine inches wide by three inches 

 deep with broken pieces of flower-pot; upon 

 that to place leaf-mould, and plant our Polypody 

 therein, covering its rhizoma lightly with the 

 mould. We then placed the pan upon a large red 

 olay saucer, and poured water on the roots until 

 the saucer underneath was full. We continued 

 this process from time to time, never allowing the 

 rhizomas of our Polypody to become dry, and 

 always keeping the saucer underneath the pan 

 full of water. We have our reward in the grand 

 development of the plant. The fronds have ex- 

 ceeded by one inch their maximum growth when 

 we found them in their wild habitat. The seed- 

 pan is crowned with a mass of rich, vigorous 

 fronds, nineteen inches in length. The old fronds 

 had all got broken off before we planted our 



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