HART'S-TONGUE FERN 303 



with it nor heat our oven with it, nor have we yet, 

 as a last resource, made a meal off it. 



The temptation in dry weather to turn hose or 

 syringe on one's ferns is one to be rather fought 

 down than encouraged. It is often of doubtful 

 benefit, and may possibly at times be actually 

 injurious. The soil in which a fern is growing 

 must never be allowed to become parched, but any 

 water applied should go rather direct to the root 

 crowns than flung against the fronds. The force 

 with which the water strikes the leaves is to their 

 detriment, and it is often much too cold. If Nature 

 appears a little remiss in sending refreshing, cleans- 

 ing showers, a little sprinkling of the fronds may be 

 indulged in. 



In the damper and shadier recesses our hart's- 

 tongues are well in evidence, their glossy evergreen 

 fronds being always a welcome adornment. While 

 this fern delights in growing in damp situations 

 one often sees it, for instance, fringing the sides of 

 the cottager's well it prospers very fairly on old 

 walls, while in its normal state it is of extreme 

 simplicity of form, and therefore a very welcome 

 contrast to other species ; yet there is no fern 

 more subject to variation ; and if one cares to visit 

 the nursery of any great fern-grower he will be 

 prepared to submit to us more than a hundred 

 recognised and named variations from type. It 

 thrives best in a rather heavy loam, and its 



