202 



CASSELL'S POPtll/AE GARDENING. 



it about fourteen feet Mgh, and even amongst thick 

 underwood in copses in this country we have seen it 

 attain dimensions not much less. TJndouhtedly this 

 species — ^prohahly because it is so common — is some- 

 what neglected by gaurdeners. Under suitable con- 

 ditions, and with proper restrictions, it makes a very 

 handsome garden plant. As a pot plant in a small 

 state — and no fern is more readily raised from 

 spores — we have seen it used with great success for 

 " furnishing." 



The New Zealand P. scaherula is also hardy in 

 many places in this country, the only attention it 

 requires in the out-door fernery being a layer of 

 dry leaves over its slender rhizomes during the 

 winter months. For several years, too, in anything 

 but a very favoured locality, we knew of a fine 

 plant of F. umbrosa, which flourished in an open 

 fernery with no care whatever. The two suc- 

 cessive severe winters which caused such widespread 

 loss amongst half-hardy and even hardy trees and 

 plants generally some few years ago, proved, how- 

 ever, too much for this stranger from thp Southern 

 Hemisphere. 



Cultivation. — Most of the species of Fteris 

 mentioned in the foregoing pages require no great 

 skill in order to manage them successfully. The 

 stronger-growing kinds thrive in a mixture of loam, 

 leaf -mould, and sand; the more delicate ones do 

 better in peat and sand. All require a goodly supply 

 of water to the roots during the growing season, 

 and although not very averse to overhead wetting, it 

 is perhaps better to abstain from syringing except on 

 the afternoons of bright hot summer days. A good 

 many are by no means particular as to shading, and 

 will succeed with no more attention in this respect 

 than is found necessary for ordinary stove or green- 

 house plants grown under glass. Periodical water- 

 ings with weak liquid manure (that obtained from 

 cow-dung being perhaps the safest and best) are 

 highly beaefioial, particularly to the stronger- 

 growing kinds. The method recommended for 

 raising spores of Adiantum does admirably for aU 

 the species of Fteris, and scarcely more than six or 

 eight months are needed to obtain a good stock of 

 thoroughly serviceable plants of such as F. Gretiea, 

 F. aerrulata, &o. F. tricolor dislikes water on its 

 beautifully-coloured fronds, and this should properly 

 — in order to develop the brilliant hues 'of the 

 fronds to their fullest extent — be grown under a 

 bell-glass in a light open position. Not a few 

 ferns suffer from the prevalent idea that light 

 is to be guarded against; during the duU winter 

 months, particularly in sunless weather, most 

 ferns can scarcely have too much light, and these 

 remarks fully apply to the genus now under con- 

 sideration. 



THE FLOWEE GAUDEN; 



By William Wildsmith. 



KEEPING ANB GENMBAL CULTURE. 



TO some — ^perhaps to most people — ^perfection of 

 keeping in a garden may appear to be simply 

 a matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. But it is 

 not so. Ample labour or assistance certainly goes a 

 long way -in the direction of the attainment, but this 

 must be supplemented by a determination that every 

 job shall be done at the right time, and in such an 

 effective manner as to last for the longest periods. 

 The pulling out of seeding weeds only, sweeping up 

 the thickest rubbish, clearing out the worst comers, 

 and such-like slipshod ways of working, however 

 ample the labour, will never result in neatness or 

 good keeping. Personal appreciativeness of all that 

 is orderly and neat, as weU as thoroughness in the 

 practical performance of the work, alone can insure 

 that high degree of keep that makes " a thing of 

 beauty (the garden) a joy for ever." 



If eatness. — Lest it may be thought that undue 

 prominence is being given to this subject of neat- 

 ness, let us regard the keep of an ordinary flower- 

 bed planted after the simplest bedding-out pattern. 

 If the bad flowers be kept constantiy picked off, de- 

 caying leaves the same, and a peg inserted here and 

 there to fill up gaps, and the edging of grass round 

 it be regularly trimmed, it may always be viewed 

 with satisfaction ; and, into the bargain, a constant 

 succession of flower is a greater certainty, simply 

 because there is no waste of energy by the plants 

 on seed-production. Apply these remarks to the 

 flower-beds as a whole, and it will be seen what real 

 neatness is, and what it means or conduces to in 

 plants, viz., to greater floriferousness, robustness, 

 and lasting properties. 



Then as to neatness in other departments of the 

 garden — ^walks, for instance. Nothing so readily 

 tells tales of general slovenliness as weedy, neg- 

 lected walks; and the opposite we have invariably 

 found to hold good, viz., that clean, weU-kept 

 walks are, as a rule, a true index to the general 

 good management of all other departments of a 

 garden. Here it may be remarked that thougbtless- 

 nesB, rather than intended negligence, must have at 

 least part of the credit lor much lack of neatness. 

 The edgings of grass verges are left too long uncut, 

 consequently the Grasses, Clovers, Plantains, and 

 other weeds seed, and as a matter of course spring 

 up in the walks ; all of which trouble is preventible 

 by timely attention to trimming of edgings. One 

 hour of such work would in many instances save 

 days of labour in walk-weeding. 



