HARDY FERNS. 



THERE are no more lovely and use- 

 ful plants for decorative purposes 

 than our Hardy evergreen ferns 

 For rooms too cool to sit long in 

 as a general thing, these plants luxuriate, 

 as they will endure every change of tem- 

 perature, even beyond freezing. 



needs protection from the sun, and does 

 best in a pot by itself. Edging this box 

 were the dwarf species : A. ruta muraria, 

 Asplenium ebeneum, A. trichomanes, 

 Camplosorus rizophyllum and Polypo- 

 dium incanum and vulgare. 



No collection of house plants is com- 



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Fig. 1689. — Adiaktum gracillinum. — Photo, sent by Mr. Hunt. 



Exotic ferns require the Wardian case, 

 or bell glass ; but they cannot compare 

 with the intense green, and freshness of 

 the hardy sorts. A handsome box I 

 once saw, contained, for the centre, 

 Aspidium acrostichoides, A. cristaium, A. 

 lonchitis, A. spinu/osum, and the climber 

 Lygodium palmaium, surrounded by the 

 Maiden Hair ( Adiantum pedatum), which 



plete without the fern. The Boston is 

 a good one to raise, and is so close a 

 relative to the florid fern, that it is 

 thought by many to be one and the 

 same. The Lady fern (Asplenium filix- 

 famina) is a splendid pot fern, elegant 

 and vigorous. 



Then there is the Rattlesnake fern, 

 largest of its genus. The Ostrich, of 



448 



