XII. 

 THE HARDY FERNERY. 



HATEVER the garden may owe to 

 i hardy flowers, and however varied and 

 attractive its collection of shrubs and 

 trees, it would still be lacking in one of its great- 

 est charms if deprived of ferns. They are the 

 very quintessence of the woods, whether they 

 rise to form a classic urn like the great ostrich, 

 or quiver on ebon stems like the lovely maiden- 

 hair. The very name has a fresh, fragile sound 

 in any language Fih'ces. fflci, fougeres, 

 Farnen, ferns. The fern offers no excuse for 

 not possessing flowers. Color, other than its in- 

 finitely varied greens and the dark spore-cases 

 underneath or on the margins of the fronds, 

 would mar its beauty. Its green and its grace 

 are its flower, and Nature wisely left it a flower- 

 less plant, the embodiment of beauty in foliage. 

 When well grown the fern carries its character- 



