14 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
one of these ferns in May, 1911, and planted it in my 
fern bed. It produced a number of fronds and grew 
finely in 1911, but remained dormant throughout 1912. 
Then, on July 21, 1913, it began to send up two very 
small fronds—and ever since it has failed to make its 
appearance, dead, by this time, without a doubt. 
In August, 1914, I planted six adder’s tongues in the 
fern bed. Five of these appeared in 1915 during the 
last days of April. In 1916 they did not come up till 
the middle of May, two of them with fertile spikes. 
Both of these fertile plants were eaten off near the base 
during the night while still quite young and in June 
each of them produced a small sterile blade. 
The results of my efforts to grow club-mosses, Lyco- 
podium obscurum and Lycopodium lucidulum,: can be 
summed up in one statement—complete failure to keep 
them growing for a longer period than two years. It 1s 
my experience that the Lycopodiums and probably one 
or more species of ferns must be provided with the 
natural soil of their habitats, or with special plant food, 
to make them grow well. My experience with the 
mountain laurel and trailing arbutus tends to prove 
this supposition to be correct. For a number of years 
I had tried to grow mountain laurels in my yard, but 
from one to three years was the limit of their existence. 
Then I tried the plan of filling the hole in which I planted 
the laurel with the ground which I dug out while secur 
ing the plant, mixing the portion above the roots with 
a liberal supply of half-rotted oak leaves and mule 
ing it thickly with the same material. Each year ! 
furnish it with a supply of decaying oak leaves and for 
mde years my mountain laurel has been growing fairly 
well. 
In general, the dates of the appearance in spring and 
of the fruiting of wild ferns correspond well with these 
same periods of growth of the ferns in my fern garden. 
