Story ov A FERN GARDEN 87 
leaves in the autumn. I let many of these leaves stay 
on the ground, sprinkling them with sand or leaf mould 
to hasten their decay. This makes a good mulch to 
hold the moisture and also is a source of plant food, 
just as nature intended. It is a mistake to clear away 
too many leaves and old fern fronds just to ‘tidy up.” 
Most ferns need plenty of moisture while maturing 
their fronds and an occasional thorough drenching with 
the fine spray from the garden hose, if the clouds do 
not furnish sufficient water, will do much good. If the 
ground is dry in the late autumn the hose should also 
be used, as ferns, like many other plants, will go through 
the winter better if the ground is full of moisture when 
it freezes. 
Seconp GrowrH Fronps.—Frequent rains during 
the summer will sometimes bring out a second growth 
of fronds on some, but not all, of the ferns. Because 
of such rains during July and August in 1918 my Dry- 
opteris Filix-mas, cristata, Goldiana, marginalis, spinu- 
losa, intermedia, ‘“ Boottii,” Cystopteris fragilis and D. 
cristata x marginalis put out a new crop of fronds. It 
was noticeable at this time (about September Ist) that 
although the Broad Beech fronds were still unrolling, 
many of them being of a beautiful light-green color, 
no new fronds appeared on the Long Beech fern, which 
had long before this stopped growing for the season. 
All its fronds had lost their fresh green color and turned 
to a dull homely olive. 
Start a Fern Garpen!—In closing this article i 
would urge the reader to start a fern garden, even if 
on a very modest scale. As an investment I can, from 
my own experience, guarantee that it will pay big 
dividends in the added health, pleasure, and intimate 
knowledge of the living ferns that it will surely bring 
to you. 
NEWBURYPORT, MAss. 
