CULTIVATION OF FERNS. 33 



is not only scarce in most places, but its foliage is inconspicuous. Asplenium 

 flaccidum and Lomaria fluviatilis are probably our best ferns for the purpose, but they 

 are both rather coarse. Squares of cork bark are also a good deal used to grow ferns 

 upon at home. The bark is covered with a layer of moss a good deal larger every 

 way than itself. Mould, with the fern planted in it, is then placed on the moss, the 

 edges of which are turned over so as to cover the mould, and the whole is secured 

 to the cork by fine copper wires tied across and across and passed round copper tacks 

 driven into the edges of the cork, which can then be hung up basket fashion or 

 suspended against a wall. Of course where people can afford it, proper ferneries are 

 the best places in which to grow these plants, and these may be either glazed or 

 unglazed, according to the means of the owners and the class of ferns which they 

 are to contain. In the case of glazed ferneries or greenhouses, it is well to have the 

 means of shading the plants, by means of blinds, in hot weather. Rather coarse open 

 canvas is best, as the objeft is not so much to darken the house as to divide the sun's 

 rays and prevent scorching. Some people use two blinds of more or less open texture 

 according to the brightness of the weather. A very cheap and yet effective fernery, 

 however, may be constructed with walls of closely packed manuka-scrub, secured to a 

 wooden framework, and a roof of similar scrub, left sufficiently open to admit a 

 moderate amount of light. Most gardens contain some shady corner not suited for 

 flowers, but which if sheltered from wind will suit ferns well ; and by the display of a 

 little taste in the arrangement of some old roots, stumps and branches of trees, and 

 lumps of stone, covering a heap of earth and mould, a rockery may be formed in which 

 ferns will grow well, and be much admired. Few Colonial houses have room enough 

 inside them for fern stands, with bell glasses over them, to contain delicate ferns ; or 

 better still, Wardian cases. These last are zinc-lined boxes, three or four feet long by 

 eighteen inches wide and six or eight inches deep, standing on legs about three feet 

 high. Above this is a cover of the same size and about twelve to fifteen inches high, 

 with its top and sides glazed. Sometimes this cover is made to lift bodily off, and 

 sometimes so that part of it will open to get at the plants. In this, delicate ferns like 

 the Todeas and Hymenophylla may be grown, and will not need watering for many 

 months together. 



I have for many years grown these delicate ferns out of doors by means of a 

 similar contrivance, as follows : — Get a zinc-lined packing case, such as drapery goods 

 are imported in ; take away the top boards on opposite sides with the corresponding 

 zinc lining, and roof it with glass so arranged as to be capable of removal at a minute's 

 notice to give your plants the benefit of rain. It is well to arrange the glass so that 

 its bottom edges rest on a ledge within the zinc, and about half an inch below what has 

 been left as the top edge of the two opposite sides of the case ; as the ends are to be 

 left standing up, and connefted by a crossbar, against which the upper edge of the 



