84 



THE FLORISTS^ MANUAL. 



in July, plant them on the bench in 

 four or five inches of good, rich soil, 

 six to eight inches apart. In a warm, 

 unshaded house they will make a good 

 growth during summer, and should be 

 stopped two or three times to produce 

 more shoots. They should not have a 

 less temperature than 60 degrees at 

 night at any time. If the sprays are 

 cut at Christinas they will break and 

 give another growth and flowers in 

 March and April. 



Like the poinsettia, they do not like 

 their roots disturbed. If grown in pots 

 they can be plunged outside in sum- 

 mer, but never allowed to get too 

 much of a soaking of water. No in- 

 sects trouble them. Unlike the poin- 

 settia, the plants that are two and 

 three years old are the most valuable. 

 After the flower is cut they can be 

 lifted and stored away in dry soil un- 

 der a bench and started growing again 



Japan, Persia and Syria, the Polyne- 

 sian Islands, Cape of Good Hope, Na- 

 tal, Abyssinia, Mascerene Islands, Ne- 

 pal, Simla, Assam, and 6,000 feet up 

 on the Himalaya mountains, in Thi- 

 bet and Afghanistan; in the United 

 States it grows in North Carolina and 

 westward to Arizona, and in the Ama- 

 zon valley and in the Cape de Verde 

 Islands, as well as the Azores, Ma- 

 deira, Teneriffe in fact, throughout 

 the world, except Australia and New 

 Zealand. Many others have almost as 

 wide a distribution. 



Those people who may wonder and 

 conjecture at the closely allied species 

 of animal life existing in countries far 

 removed from one another, and be- 

 tween which till a very recent date 

 communication was impossible, need 

 not wonder at finding the same species 

 of ferns in many parts, because it 

 would be quite possible for the spores 



Prize-winning Group of Ferns. 



in May or June. Any good loam with 

 a fourth of manure will grow them, 

 but it should be of that texture that 

 water will pass freely through. The 

 essentials are light, heat, plenty of 

 water when growing, and when in leaf 

 no disturbance of the roots. 



FERNS. 



This large and ancient order of 

 plants is known botanically as Filices. 

 They are found throughout the globe 

 in every land, and what is remarkable 

 is that not only is a single genus 

 widely spread in many parts of the 

 world, but a single species is found on 

 every continent and island of the sea. 

 One instance will suffice. The well 

 known Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, the 

 British Maiden Hair fern, is found in 

 the warm parts of England and Ire- 

 land, and so it is a native of Central 

 and Southern Europe. In China and 



to travel hundreds, perhaps thousands, 

 of miles by currents of air. Ferns 

 have no flowers, and that is their great 

 distinguishing mark from all other 

 plants that are perennial, evergreen, or 

 arborescent. The order includes the 

 lowly, creeping selaginella to the ma- 

 jestic giant, the Dicksonia and also- 

 phila of the Australian forest. Ferns 

 are first of all the most graceful of 

 plants. A few may be called more 

 curious than beautiful, such as the 

 platycerium (stag's horn fern), but all 

 are handsome and interesting, and 

 many so graceful that both as orna- 

 mental plants and cut fronds they are 

 now indispensable, and hundreds of 

 thousands of feet of glass are devoted 

 to their culture alone. This is a branch 

 of our business which cannot change 

 except to increase. The graceful ferns 

 we must have, whatever flowers we 

 use. The native ferns of our latitude 



are mostly all deciduous, but they 

 make handsome plants for the rock 

 work or against walls or fences. 



The collection and storing for win- 

 ter use of the fronds of a few species 

 of our native ferns is now quite an 

 industry, and many millions of fronds 

 are preserved for our winter demands. 



In Europe the hardy fernery is us- 

 ually a part of every well regulated 

 garden, and a most interesting place it 

 is for those who have a cultivated 

 taste for these beautiful plants. It is 

 not hazardous to say that it is supe- 

 rior minds that have a taste or make 

 a hobby of ferns or any other class of 

 plants. Retiring people, and perhaps 

 considered cranks they may be, per- 

 haps poor hands at swapping horses or 

 even making money, careless in fash- 

 ion and not up in golf and poor in 

 politics, yet superior minds far above 

 the common herd. Not those who keep 

 an expensive gardener and pride them- 

 selves on having the finest garden to 

 please their friends or surpass their 

 neighbor, but the man or woman who 

 knows their pets, their wants, and 

 when they are flourishing and happy, 

 there is where you will find the intel- 

 ligent, honest and contented individ- 

 ual. 



A hardy fernery in our latitude 

 would have to be confined largely to 

 our .^northern species; still, for six or 

 seven months it would be highly in- 

 teresting. They are best shaded by 

 lofty trees and sunk some few feet 

 below the surface, and cut out with 

 winding paths, with rocks and mounds 

 for the ferns. The cool as well as the 

 tropical fercery is usually found in all 

 fine gardens of Great Britain, 'mere 

 may be some here, but as yet they 

 are not common, although there is 

 nothing to prevent their perfect suc- 

 cess. They are usually sunk a few 

 feet below the surface of the surround- 

 ing ground, simply to insure a more 

 uniform temperature. With a proper 

 selection and planting these ferneries 

 are most beautiful and interesting. 

 When planted cut where the roots en- 

 joy a uniform degree of moisture, 

 many species display a beauty that it 

 is impossible to produce in a pot. 



All students of ferns or those inter- 

 ested in their culture, whether for 

 pleasure or profit, should most as- 

 suredly avail themselves of that grand 

 work, "The Book of Choice Ferns." 

 published by the same firm as Nichol- 

 son's Dictionary of Gardening, J. Ar- 

 not Penman, New York, agent. It is 

 in seven handsome volumes, most 

 comprehensive, and in paper, type and 

 illustrations magnificent. To it I must 

 often refer, for no better authority ex- 

 ists. The author makes a classifica- 

 tion of ferns for "decorative purposes" 

 which is a guide to those who are 

 seeking species for any particular pur- 

 pose. 



He classes them as follows: 1, Tree 

 ferns; 2, gigantic, non-aborescent; 3. 

 small growing; 4, ferns with colored 

 or tinted fronds; 5, variegated and 

 crested; 6, gold and silver; 7, climb- 

 ing, trailing and drooping; 8, filmy or 



