34 CULTIVATION OF FERNS. 



glass leans. Put your case nicely level and standing on some bricks under the shade 

 of trees, in a sheltered part of your garden. Then put four bricks at the bottom of the 

 case, inside, to support the boards on which your pots of ferns are to stand, and keep 

 the space under these boards well supplied with water. If the lining of your case is 

 watertight, you will scarcely ever need to renew the water as the rain will keep up an 

 ample supply ; in faft, in very wet weather you will have to take away part of the 

 water. The objeft of letting the bottom edge of the glass go down inside the case is 

 that, if you are not at hand to uncover your ferns during rain, the water will run down 

 into the case instead of being wasted outside. The water in the bottom of the case 

 supplies by its evaporation the very cool and moist atmosphere that ferns love ; in 

 fa£l, the conditions are exactly like those of a damp part of a New Zealand forest, and 

 our most delicate ferns will thrive to perfection. By having several such cases, placed 

 in rather sunnier or shadier situations, you can put the several plants in the greater 

 or less light which they seem to prefer, and the whole contrivance costs but a few 

 shillings and so is within the reach of every one. The great thing for most ferns, 

 as I have already said, is a moist atmosphere. On a hot sunny day, the 

 thermometer in my greenhouse often registers 140°; yet many of our New 

 Zealand and English ferns sustain no injury, because the atmosphere is kept 

 thoroughly moist, by reason of the trays of water in which the pots stand and 

 evening syringeing. In describing the various ferns, I shall mention the kind of 

 places in which they grow and how they are likely to succeed best under cultivation. 

 It is very interesting to grow ferns from their spores, and our lovely little Gymno- 

 gramma leptophylla, being an annual, can only be grown in this way and is well worth 

 the trouble. Fill a pot full of sandy mould, and wet it thoroughly, then scatter your 

 spores on the surface and cover the pot with a piece of glass. Do not disturb the 

 mould by watering it, but moisten it by standing the pot in water at longer or shorter 

 intervals, according to the dryness or moisture of the weather. In a longer or 

 shorter time the prothalli will appear, but at first will be scarcely discernible ; and 

 when the young ferns have grown a little, so as to have proper roots, you may begin 

 to water them gently. When well grown, you can transplant them into separate pots ; 

 but do not be in too great a hurry to do this. 



Another good way of growing ferns from spores is as follows : — Get a soft brick, 

 if a little dirty all the better, and stand it in water nearly as deep as itself. Sow your 

 fern spores on top of it and leave it till the young fronds appear. You will of course 

 have to add fresh water occasionally. When the fronds have grown a little, sprinkle 

 a thin coating of fine mould among them and add more from time to time as the 

 plants increase in size. You may also water them lightly, and when large enough 

 prick them out and afterwards pot them. 



I have mentioned the cresting of ferns. Crested plants are always more or less 



