Si 



JOTJENAL OF HOKTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE aARDENER. [ Janaary 31, 1865. 



stance which is formed of cellular tissue, and of the seeds. 

 The seed contains the rudiment of a similar plant. 



The embryo comprehends the radicle or rudiment of the 

 root, the plumule or rudiment of the stem, and cotyledons, 

 whose office it is to supply nourishment to the youngr jilant 

 before the appearance of the leaves. — T. Collinos Bkehaut, 

 Richmond House, Guernsey. 



HAEDY FEENSi 



HOW I COLLECTED AND CULTIVATED THEM— No. 9. 



In writing my espei'iences of Fern hunting in Cornwall, 

 my pen has a lingering habit, and my thoughts wander away 

 fi'om the Ferns to the people with whom J was thrown into 

 pleasant association during my Cornish visit, and iipou 

 whose chai-acters and habits of life, Mr. Aitken's influence 

 was telling perceptibly, telling upon rich and poor in a 

 manner th.at made itself felt by every visitor to Penzance, 



The man who drove the donkey-chair, the miner who 

 showed us short cuts over terrible precipices, each had some 

 tale to tell of wonderful conversions made with noise and 

 clamour, in which it seemed to me, that the worse the 

 "ground," the better the "seed sown" was supposed to 

 thrive. AVhat I heai'd did not seem to fit in with my know- 

 ledge of the usual workings of the " Good Power " in the 

 natural world around me. I remembered the Lanceolatum 

 dwindling away on the barren wall, and I asked what sort of 

 lives followed upon these noisy conversions ? The answer 

 was as I expected — a dwindling away afterwards. Tet not 

 in all characters was this reaction to be observed. Upon 

 some 5Ir. Aitken's strange power for influence fell with the 

 highest results for good— stii-ring up the slothful, deepening 

 the seriousness of the already serious, and giving to the na- 

 turally timid a moral courage, unlike the courage of this 

 world — it was the influence that a mind really iu earnest 

 (whether for good or evil), must ever have upon the minds 

 of those around him. 



As the memory of these days comes back to me, a bright 

 light seems to fall on the fragile Maiden-hair Fern, so 

 graceful in form, so tender and delicate in growth. Hiding 

 itself away from the glare of the sun, and the haunts of 

 men, in its own home — the home of Heaven's choice — -how 

 green and lovely it is ! adorning the rough crevices of the 

 time-worn rook, and in its sheltered nook, even iu the depth 

 of winter, ringing out to Xature'sGod its Uttle piean of praise, 

 as a stray wind blows on the tiny pinnules. Transplanted, 

 the delicate fronds shiver in every breeze, and perish when 

 the cold wind of he.aven touches them. 



Adiantum capillus- Veneris, is another of my representa- 

 tive Ferns. 



Fragile and delicate as the Fern was the young friend 

 who first introduced me to its haunts on the rocky banks 

 between Lelant and St. Ives, in a wondrous walk, where 

 every beauty of earth and sea and sky seem blended 

 together in harmony. As we walked and talked, rabbits 

 came out of their burrows, peered at us, and then scudded 

 away amidst the Gorse. I had never seen A. capillus- Veneris 

 in perfect growth in England, and none but one to whom 

 its fastnesses were well known would have founil it on this 

 day. I was cautiously descending a very slippei-y b.ank on 

 the verge of a sharp descent to the sea, whose waters were 

 murmiiring below, when I heard a joyous cry — " Look up!" 

 and there I saw the Maiden-hair, not one plimt but many, 

 peeping out of moss dripping with trickling water, and 

 nestling into the crevices of the rock. Some of the plants 

 were tender wee things ; but I think these answered best 

 in cultivation, for out of thia morning's raid I have had 

 about twenty beautiful Fema, besides those that my friend 

 took away. I can recall the very scene, the dark eyes of 

 my friend, out of which the pure light of a chastened soul 

 gleamed, brightening with delight at the discovered treasure, 

 the eager step, the radiant, and then the paling chock. I 

 see it all as 1 look at my Ferna, and remember that that 

 ardent spirit ia at rest for evermore; safe in that blessed 

 homo towards which ho had from hia earliest years been 

 walkinir, aide by side, aa it aeemed to those who knew his 

 (juiet, holy life, with Him whoso love constrained him to a 

 life of self-dcniul and self-devotedneas, to the spiritual 

 welfare of all around him. His highest ambition was, when I 



old enough, to be a missionary priest, to spend all his 

 talents and his life in his Saviour's service. Ere that Icaiged- 

 for day of toil dawned, rest was given, and the earnest 

 choice of the heart, and the fixed will of the mind, was, we 

 may humbly trust, taken for the working of a body too frail 

 to fulfil its longings, by that " Only Master, who in service 

 takes the will for the deed." 



In our uphill scramble to regain tho path to St. Ives, we 

 met a man who looked at us with very displeased eyes. 

 " Where had we found the Fern?" Then he invited us to 

 his cottage, .and showed us, oh ! so very many imprisoned 

 Maiden-hairs, languishing in captivity, which ho had sought 

 ibr and planted to sell to stray tom-ists ; so that shortly 

 every plant must be gone. 



St. Ives is one of the most picturesque towns in England. 

 The grey houses jut out on a tongue of land into the sea, 

 which chafes around and upon them, quite ready, in ap- 

 pearance at least, to swallow them up, as it swallowed the 

 land of Lyonesse long ago. I found no other rare Fern at 

 Lelant or St. Ives, but there are many curious wild plants, 

 and the churches are well worth a visit, pai'ticularly that of 

 Lelant. 



I planted the specimens of A. capillus-Veneris in pots half 

 full of drainage, with peat earth, and a little silver sand. 

 They thrive well in cultivation, but they must be housed 

 during winter in the north of England. In Devonshire I 

 have succeeded in making them live iu the rockery all the 

 year-. A short distance ti-om Nice, in France, there is a 

 grotto, called the grotto of St. Andi-e, the whole roof of 

 which is a mass of capillus-Veneris. I drove there one 

 Christmas Eve. The portals of the cave were bright with 

 flowers and Myrtles, and the inside was like fairyland, from 

 the waving of the beautiful tresses, as they hung from the 

 dripping roof high above our heads. I took a hint ft-om the 

 cave, and keep my Maiden-liair thoroughly drained, and 

 constantly watered over the fronds, and I have seldom seen 

 finer jjauts than the Warwickshii'e ones. 



I have not mentioned any particular haunts of Lastrea 

 rccurva, for it grows x^leiitifully everywhere ; the well- 

 drained banks of old ditches seem to suit it best. One of 

 the vei-y prettiest Adiantums, a foreign one, for a rockery, 

 is the Pedatum. It is exceedingly hardy, increasing rapidly, 

 and the tuft of bright pinna; attached to the shining black 

 stalk spreads out in shape like an inverted umbrella, making 

 the entire mass like a diminutive Palm grove. 



Another good hardy Fern is the Cyrtomium falcatum. 

 This Fern has the dark shining look of the Holly, and pre- 

 serves its brightness when the other inhabitants of the 

 fernery are lying dead around. It is a native of South 

 America. In a small hamper of Ferns lately sent to me 

 from Otago, in New Zealand, I discern the early promise of 

 C. falcatum, but as I have not had the opportunit3' of study- 

 ing the native Ferns of Otago, I cannot be very positive 

 about it, and I shall not venture it out of doors till 1 loam 

 its inclination more fully. The fructification of the Cyrto- 

 mium is exceedingly curious. The shape of tho frond re- 

 sembles a leaf uf tho Berberis aquifolium, and tho back of 

 each pinnule is dotted over with round spore-cases in the 

 neatest manner imaginable. 



There is a great deal of pleasure in tending the foreigners 

 of a fernery, particularly when they benignly adapt them- 

 selves to our miserable climate. Torn from the glories of a 

 tropical forest, where their kindred tower their giant forma 

 towards Heaven, do they never pine for homo 'f Does the 

 Cyrtomium never long to change tho twittering sparrow 

 and sober robin, for the gay chatter of tho parrot, or the 

 wisdom of the statesman-like macaw ? Does it miss the 

 light spring of the agoute, the merry race of the raccoon ^ 

 Does it hold out its arms in vain lor the embrace of the 

 trailing parasite, decked in a thousand gorgeous hues ? 

 Docs it sigh for the glow of the uoimtide sun, as its rays 

 penetrate here and there the thick shade of tho forest, 

 lighting up tho bright insect world that lies in drowsy case 

 around? For my pleasure it is content to forego .'ill its 

 grand, happy past, and live in the quiet fernery, alone and 

 forgotten by all but the grateful hand that stipplics its 

 w.inta, remembering it is a stranger in a strange, uncon- 

 genial land. 



Another foreigner that ia very easily cultivated, and very 

 lovely, is tho Polystichum proliferum, the fronds are so 



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