32 CULTIVATION OF FERNS. 



them is apt to get sour, or running the risk of their getting too dry. It may be taken 

 as a rule, however, that the best way to water a fern is to stand the pot in water, 

 nearly its own depth, till the earth in the pot is thoroughly soaked, and then let the 

 surplus moisture drain away, repeating the dose only when the plant absolutely 

 requires it. Zinc pots facilitate this. But though this care is necessary in watering 

 the roots of a fern, the atmosphere around them can as a rule hardly be kept too 

 moist. By this, I do not mean that the plants themselves are to be syringed so much 

 as that the floor and walls of the fernery should be kept thoroughly damp. Whether 

 a syringe or a watering-pot be used, the rose of it ought to be fine enough to dis- 

 charge the water as mere misty spray ; and the water should be quite as warm as the 

 atmosphere surrounding the ferns. To water ferns with cold water on a hot day chills 

 them very injuriously. Some of the most beautiful exotic ferns, as for instance the gold 

 and silver Gymnograms, must have only their roots watered; watering the foliage rots it. 

 Some of our New Zealand ferns grow right down to the edge of the boiling water at 

 our hot springs, sometimes in earth from which steam and sulphur vapour issues at 

 every pore, and these will be the better for having warm water applied to their roots. 

 What most ferns want is an atmosphere so highly saturated with moisture that it will 

 condense on their fronds like dew. Then they are in their glory. This shows the 

 absurdity of trying to grow our bush ferns in a room ; for such an atmosphere as I have 

 described would cause the furniture to fall to pieces and everything else to become 

 blue-mpuldy. It is only those which naturally grow in more exposed situations that 

 will stand being carried into a room, and it is best not to keep even these there for more 

 than a few days at a time, as they require pure air and soon get sickly indoors, 

 particularly if exposed to the fumes of gas. 



Another mistake that people make is in applying dirty water or liquid manure to- 

 ferns. Only perfectly clean water — rain-wafer where possible — should ever be applied 

 to them. Manure t'n any form is fatal. This cannot be too carefully borne in mind. 

 Hanging baskets are very pretty things in which to grow ferns ; but these again are 

 not suitable for rooms, as the watering necessary to keep the plants in health would 

 cause a permanent pool of water on the floor beneath. They do well, however, in a 

 fernery or greenhouse where the dripping from the basket helps to keep the general 

 atmosphere moist. Such baskets are made in various ways; but, perhaps, the best are 

 those of china or glass, in imitation of sticks laid across and across. A thickness of 

 moss is laid on the bottom and round the sides to confine the mould in which the ferns 

 are planted, and the sorts selefted are usually those which have long narrow fronds,, 

 which will droop over the sides and hang down so as to hide, or partially hide, the 

 basket. Some of the ferns which have their fronds terminating in long tails, which 

 put forth roots and young plants at their ends, are particularly suited to this kind of 

 culture ; but we have only one such in New Zealand (Asplenium flabellifolium), and it 



