ROCKWORK FOR FERNS 55 



is so intensely brilliant earlier in the season 

 that nobody looks at anything else. 



The beech fern (Phegopteris polypodioides), 

 on the contrary, appears late in the season 

 and keeps so fresh and looks so cool 

 long after other deciduous ferns are fading 

 that no rockery can afford to be without it. 

 It is virtually a rejuvenator. of its environ- 

 ment. 



The common polypody is perhaps equally 

 meritorious and should be lavishly used in 

 rockwork. Of the smaller spleenworts, the 

 ebony spleenwort (A. platyneuron) stands 

 here as elsewhere like a small sentinel. 

 Pretty rosettes of the maidenhair spleenwort 

 (A. Trichomanes) are cropping out here and 

 there, and tucked down in a shady corner is 

 the green spleenwort {Asplenium viride). 

 To the casual observer these two are much 

 alike. Eaton (in Gray's Manual) limits the 

 fronds of A. Trichomanes to from three to 

 eight inches; those of A. viride to from two 

 to six; the stipe and rachis of the former 

 are black and shining, while those of A. viride 



