FERN GROWING 147 



The author cannot help quoting, from Mr. Druery's 

 useful work on " Choice British Ferns," the following remarks, 

 as they are so true, which we all know to our cost, viz., 

 as regards destruction of plants through want of ordinary 

 observation and attention. Mr. Druery says : " With constant 

 personal care the evil may not go far ; but go out for a week 

 or two, leave somebody else in charge, and the caterpillar 

 gets his chance. When you return home, it is possible 

 you will find a choice selection of rags and tatters of dilapi- 

 dated Fern fronds, and a fine army of caterpillars roosting 

 upon the ruins, and busily grinding up the remnants into 

 future butterflies ; your pet plants recalling Paddy's old coat, 

 i.e., composed principally of fresh air." Prevention is better 

 than cure ; but how is this to be attained if your gardener is 

 devoid of that bump of observation that would enable him 

 to detect these ravages before the whole plant is gone into 

 the stomach of the caterpillar ? Plants may swarm with green 

 fly and mealy bug, and a whole colony of different plant 

 pests, but he either does not see them or is too busy with 

 his previously neglected cabbages to have time to destroy 

 pests till to-morrow, which, however, never comes ; he forgets 

 that he is thus aiding in the destruction of all the plants 

 under his care, and, moreover, is building up for himself a 

 character of incompetence ; adding one more instance that 

 such a man "is not worthy of his hire," and that instead of 

 his swaggering, and priding himself on what the army of 

 proficient gardeners, however, call by the names of want of 

 brains, and destitution of ordinary abilities, he should rather 

 take his seat on a back form in a Board School, and try to 

 learn at all events as much as his child, who was not born a 

 dozen years ago. 



Watering young fronds is a delicate operation ; for if 

 the small fronds are weighed down to the soil, unless 

 immediately lifted up by the point of a knife or pin, they 



