K8 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 24, 1876. 



instance have I known the garden crop to endure the winter 

 so well as the field crop. Not only has such been the case, 

 bat I have found that the Round or summer Spinach, which 

 is usually considered to be tender, will survive the winter 

 better in an exposed field than will the Prickly or winter 

 'Spinach in She lighter richer soil of a walled garden. That in- 

 formation was gained after a dry season and in occupying 

 vacant ground in August and September with such quick- 

 growing crops that were likely to be useful in eking out the 

 prospective scarcity of the winter and spring supply of vege- 

 tables. All the vacant garden ground was occupied, and the 

 remnant of the Spinach seed was sown in the field as an 

 experiment, or perhaps", what is more probable, as a freak of 

 ■fancy. Thus I was surprised to find the Round nearly as 

 hardy as the Prickly Spinach, and the former in the field 

 ■proved decidedly better than the latter in the garden. Need 

 I say that I have since relied on exposed places and ordinary 

 -field soil for my main supply of winter Spinaoh? Since 

 adopting that practice I have never had a failure. 



A great source of failure with Spinach in winter is the mois- 

 ture hanging round the necks of the plants and which cannot 

 drain away freely. Another evil, and withal a common one, 

 ■is, in the first place, sowing the seeds too thickly, and then 

 not thinning out the plants sufficiently early. The plants 

 should be thinned, if possible, before they touch each other; 

 then the plants which are to remain are totally undisturbed. 

 If thinning is too long postponed and the permanent plants 

 suffer any disturbance or displacement, and are suddenly de- 

 prived of the shelter and support of surrounding plants, then 

 the crop of winter Spinach is almost certain to "go off." If 

 the plants are not thinned out early it is better not to thin 

 them at all : and in all cases it is advisable to take pains to 

 procure good seed and to sow it thinly. 



But while Spinach is a vegetable which is in demand almost 

 every day in the year in most large establishments, and the 

 'failure of the crop is consequently a source of great incon- 

 venience, yet it is not popular and relied on as a staple vege- 

 table — that is, other vegetables are generally preferred to it ; 

 hut when we can gather baEketfuls of Spinach at a time when 

 ■the " other vegetables " are not forthcoming, it is surprising 

 i iow we learn to value that which under other circumstances 

 would be almost despised. It is found also, after considerable 

 experience, that the more Spinach is consumed the more it 

 grows in the estimation of the consumers. When once the 

 palate has become " educated " to its use it is looked upon, as 

 is the gardener who produces it, in a season of vegetable famine, 

 with no small amount of respect. 



Therefore is it that the free sowing of vacant ground with 

 ■ Spinach at this period of the year is urged as worthy the con- 

 sideration of those having large families to supply with vege- 

 tables, and an unpleasantly Bmall Btore (as many must neces- 

 sarily have) to meet that demand. It may be sown on rich 

 around or poor, on ground sheltered or exposed ; and if more 

 happens to be produced than is required, no great loss will ensue, 

 or probably no loss at all, for the digging-in of the crop is a 

 capital manure for other crops succeeding. — R. Fish's Pupil. 



COVERING SURFACES IN FERNERIES. 



Although I am about to recommend Nertera depressa for a 

 purpose devoted to which it must lack two of the " three prime 

 essentials" mentioned by" W.B.J." (page 23) — namely, " cool- 

 ness" and "light," I by no means wish your correspondent 

 to conclude that I approach the subject in a deprecatory spirit. 

 There is no question but that the mode of culture detailed by 

 -" W. B. J." is the correct one, but we not unfrequently make 

 a plant serve a purpose in a much higher temperature than its 

 natural requirements demand. The very common and no less 

 -Tery useful Lycopod, Selaginella denticulata, is very nearly 

 hardy, and yet it grows nowhere so luxuriantly as in a stove 

 'amperature. The Maiden-hair Fern (Adiantum Capillus- 

 Teneris) is a native plant, bat is quite at home in a warm 

 . liouse. The curious Liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha, grows 

 on wet rocks icebound in winter for weeks, yet it thrives apace 

 on the saturated rocks in a stove fernery. Ficus repens, 

 another hardy plant, attains no such luxuriance in a green- 

 house or outdoors as in a stove. We have it in a sort of 

 cavern-like entrance to a fernery, and it makes no effort to 

 reach to the light, and grows slowly. It is thus both interest- 

 iog and instructive to observe what a persistence some plants 

 .have of life and of adapting themselves to circumstances. 



via ferneries bare wahs and rocks are more or less objection- 



able : hence plants of dwarf, dense, yet rapid growth, main- 

 taining an evergreen carpet or covering at all seasons, meet a 

 ready acceptance. Wire trellises fixed an inch or two from 

 walls stuffed with green moss, backed with compost and planted 

 with Ferns and Lycopods, have, it must be admitted, a pleasing 

 effect for a time, but soon require renewing. A better plan is 

 in building the wall to let some of the stones jut out a few 

 inches and have the face uneven, so as to form ledges even only 

 an inch or two in width. Upon these ledges can be introduced 

 small plants of Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, which only require 

 sufficient soil to maintain them in position, for they will 

 speedily pat out their roots over the surface of the wall if it 

 be kept moist. This Adiantum is one of the finest of plants 

 for clothing rocks or walls. 



If there are any ledges on a level with the eye (or a broad 

 one may be formed by leaving off the inner course of stone 

 just before the wall receives the wall plate) we have only to 

 introduce some chipping of stone for drainage, and put on 

 some peat or old cocoa-nut refuse to have a position for Ner- 

 tera depressa, the plants being divided into as many pieces 

 as wished, from the size of the thumb nail up to that of one 

 or more inches square. All it wants after planting is to be 

 kept moist, never allowing it to lack moisture. It may also be 

 introduced upon any of the ledges on the wall surface, but 

 does best near the glass. In stove or greenhouse temperature 

 it is quite at home — one of the finest, densest, and dwarfest 

 surface-covering plants that I am acquainted with. In heat 

 its insignificant yellowish blossoms appear in early Epring, and 

 are succeeded by its orange bead-like berries, spangling amid 

 the moss-like foliage. 



Other subjects for wall-covering ledges on walls are the 

 neat Selaginella apoda, truly a gem, and the pretty S. hel- 

 vetica. Amongst Ferns with creeping stems suitable for wall 

 or rock-covering may be enumerated Pleopeltis stigmatica, the 

 very similar P. squamula, Campyloneuron ccespitosum, Goni- 

 ophlebium piloselloides, G. vacciniifolium, G. lepidopteris (se- 

 pultum), and Niphobolus rupestris, all of very neat growth, 

 and such as will clothe or dot a wall with verdure in a fitting 

 manner. In order to take off the flatness a few stones may 

 project rather more than others, and upon these we may have 

 Nephrolepis tuberosa, its fronds coming out in a particularly 

 graceful manner, its only fault being that of outgrowing other 

 plants ; it should therefore be well kept in hand. Some of the 

 Davallias, aB D. pentaphylla, D. decora, and D. solida, are good 

 on such projections, and no doubt many others, none being 

 finer than Nephrolepis davallioides, but it requires room and a 

 stove temperature. The Stenochlaenas (also requiring stove 

 heat), from their climbing Ivy-like habit are very useful for 

 covering wall surfaces ; but what I particularly wish to note is 

 the rapidity with which any uneven surface — even a perpen- 

 dicular wall, is covered when there are hollows or projections 

 forming resting places for spores and ultimately plants. 



There is really nothing so pleasing in a fernery as the rising 

 of numberless seedlings on the rocky surfaces. Cork imitations 

 of rockwork are preferable to cement. Fantastic and grotesque 

 indeed are imitations of rockwork in cement, but no Fern spore 

 will ever vegetate upon it. There is no objection to artificial 

 rock when it is intended to appear as natural rock cropping up 

 here and there either in the massive or boulder formations ; 

 but there is a decided disadvantage in such imitations when 

 the rockwork is intended as representing the plants in a state 

 of nature. In nature plants find in the rock they Bpiing from 

 the elements of their existence; but to UEe cement upon the 

 surface of rockwork is to Beal it against plant life. Boulder 

 formation is not an uncommon imitation in rockwork. It is 

 the most simple of all, as we have only to foim sloping un- 

 dulating ground and scatter it with boulder rock; in some 

 places congregated masses, others isolated, with large boulders 

 partly imbedded appearing as parts of a mass beneath the 

 surface. In most cases boulder rock should form, as it does 

 in nature, the sideB and hollows of dells. It would be difficult 

 to give any particular directions for constructing rockwork, but 

 I certainly consider all imitations should be taken from the 

 natural types. No two kinds of stone Ehould be used in the 

 same rock or any of itB parts exteriorly, and due regard being 

 had to the requirements of culture. 



Bockwoik formed of " cobbles " cannot be too severely cen- 

 sured. The want of better materials may have given rise to 

 the imitation of rock in cement, the sites for plants being 

 thereby reduced, .so as to give a like proportion of positions 

 for plants as that afforded by natural rocks, but with the 

 regularity of culture instead of the picturesque irregularity of 



