FERN ROCKERIES INDOORS 95 



and the cliff brake moved in. Roomy apart- 

 ments in the top, grinning fissures at the 

 sides, cosy nooks and pockets here and there, 

 invite the fern culturist to rival Nature if he 

 can. 



The foundation of the pretty study in Plate 

 23 is an interesting conglomerate, composed 

 largely of quartz, opaque and transparent, 

 with other heterogenous elements. Although 

 a very good thing as Nature left it, a few 

 touches of Portland cement, with and with- 

 out odd bits of stone, have added much to 

 the staying qualities of soil and water in 

 certain shallow places which the pose of the 

 rock would otherwise have rendered useless. 



Perhaps the most unique and beautiful 

 thing which it has been my pleasure to 

 handle in this line of work is a dainty gem 

 displayed in Plate 24 — a poem in stone which 

 not only attracts the eye by its simple beauty 

 but which suggests Nature's greater achieve- 

 ments along the same line, basaltic columns, 

 palisades, rather than a mere fragment of 

 rock dropped by the wayside. 



